Bad bad traffic jam in PJ

I think today's menu for badness is extreme traffic jam. Normally rush hour is still bearable if traffic still moves though slow. But today it is as though somebody decided to throw a cog to the clockwork triple slow the bad traiffc. Congratulations then! Bane of all rush hour drivers.
Not sure what went wrong with the traffic system today. Perhaps some smart alec decided to reprogram the traffic light somewhere and it ripples through like a butterfly effect slingshot back to wherever you are.
Ah, this is when you need the law of attraction for calm and peace. Nothing much you can do but to wait it out. If i can blog about the bad traffic in my car you can know how bad the traffic it is. Hah!

Sometimes PC cannot connect streamyx but it is PC fault

Spend the better part of the morning troubleshooting why my office PC cannot connect to Streamyx. At first I thought Streamyx may be having problem. Then I tried to reset the the modem router by switching off then on again and still my PC would not connect even though I got a steady DSL light on my modem router.

Finally I have to do a reboot but I kept this to the last minute as rebooting Windows takes up 5 to 10 minutes (ya, ya ask Mr Bill why Windows always take so long to boot up…) and that seemed to do the trick.

Somehow something didn't start up correctly during the earlier boot and rebooting seemed to restart the necessary services to get the internet connection.

Computers worked very strangely, though it may work well most of the time, sometimes the logic processer go into a loop and go crazy. Like the other day my house PC display went funny colors and felt as though the graphic card may be on the fritz but actually a simple time consuming reboot did the trick. And why time consuming? Coz I don't know why my house PC takes so long to shut down before re-starting. Not sure it is because I installed the 64bit version of Windows 7 and it gets very cranky with an AMD system. Perhaps an Intel CPU system would be more palatable for Windows. Thus Wintel as some of the publication like to put it.

Well sometimes I buck the mainstream hardware and support AMD. After all why let Intel become like a monopoly like Windows is almost a monopoly. You don't have a Windows in your PC it becomes very difficult to work because of compatibility issues.

Anyway, I got my internet connection back from my good old cranky computer (well most computers whether new or old are cranky anyway).

Cheers!

 

Website down coz Bluehost is moving Data Center

Oh, oh… Looks like all my websites hosted on Bluehost is down. Bluehost is moving their servers to a brand new data center complete with advanced temperature control, custom server racks and dozens of improvements that suppose to provide customers like me with better quality.

Unfortunately it also means they have to take down my web hosting account while moving the web servers physically from one location to another. Due to the time zone difference, I was not sure when my web sites will be down although they said they were shifting to the new data center between 9 PM, March 27th and 5 AM March 28th (MDT). I didn't have time zone checker so to convert the time to my local time.

Fortunately, my subdomains are latched on to various services like Blogger and Tumblr etc. So I can still blog somewhere. Other than that, my main site is down.

Anyway, all my web sites are down for now. So I can't do much tweaking or hacking on my main site for now. I was trying to test out the random text using either the PHP script or CGI Perl script for SSI.

I hope the IP for my website still remain the same, I think something might break along the way. Hopefully not too serious that I cannot fix.

Oh, well, take break and have a Kit-Kat I suppose… J

Trying some Chinese herbs for dry cough

This dry cough has been ongoing for nearly 4 weeks now. I have had enough of this! Yesterday I bought a pack of Chinese herbs called Tan Ke Qing Fei herbal tea from a Chinese medical shop. The preparation was somewhat tedious in that I have to boil and simmer the herbs with six bowls (Chinese rice bowl size) of water, boil and let it evaporate till there was one bowl of liquid left and drink it.

Seemed easy enough until I tried. Somehow it didn't evaporate as plan and I still got about 3-4 bowls of herbal tea. My entire house was filled with the typical herbal smell though I am ok with this kind of aroma, as I kinda like it. The herbal tea preparation may not have gone according to plan, but after taking it, I felt a little better with less coughing. So I was going to give this another go tonight.

My wife was a little sceptical but if it worked then why not give it another go?
Strange was the fact about this dry cough. The Sinseh said the cough could 'turn' from cold to heaty and the heat could be buried within the chest waiting to break out. Hmm... Whatever that means. Anyway as long as I can get rid of this cough no matter the method I'll go for it!

Finally found cure for dry cough using this Chinese herbal drink

Streamyx kinda slow today

I wonder if Streamyx/TMnet is back to its old tricks again. I find the broadband speed today to be rather laggy and slow. I tried to reset the router modem. Also checked whether my colleague was surfing any YouTube sites, but there weren't any heavy downloading. So the main culprit is Streamyx is slow today!

The school holidays week is underway and as usual there would be a lot of kids surfing the internet downloading stuffs or watching movies online. But that should be no cause for TMnet/Streamyx to do their ungly thing and slow down everybody! I thought that period was passé when competitors like P1 Wimax with their "cut the line" slogan and recently the YTL YES Wimax broadband should shake up Streamyx into improving it services.

Perhaps Streamyx want to make more money by selling their more expensive UNIFI broadband service and give the slower bandwidth guys like us a hard time!

Bah! In terms of speed per payment, Malaysia is still lagging behind many other countries. We should be getting faster bandwidth speed for the amount we are paying! I guess the get rich quick mentality is still alive and kicking in Malaysia. So much for Malaysia Boleh…!

Baby milestone 9 - 10 months old

With so many in family sick, it's a wonder my baby still got the attention. Now at 9 months to ten moths old baby, he finally was able to crawl forward! Initially he could only push himself backwards, now he could propel himself forward to just about anywhere!
So I made a little mini play area by using two sets of foldable mattresses surrounded by the sofa set and TV bench. Where there are gaps in the furniture fencing or danger of hard surface I line the place up with cushion pillows from the sofa set.
Now he got a fairly spacious play area to crawl around! Better than my mom-in-law who just use bare marble floor. Baby knocked on the hard floor so many times already whenever he misjudge his movement and ended up crying a lot!
And from crawling, baby is now able to pull himself up to a standing position too! And he loves to stand up so much!
So, to celebrate he is now able to clap hands too! I'm spying that he could do some waving as well but not sure if baby knows it is for waving goodbye. And when the Disney Playhouse channel breaks into any lively songs, baby would lift both hands and wave them! Wow!
He is also a very curious and inquisitive young child exploring any items that you pass to him or seek out by baby. If his crawling was more steady, bet you that he is going to crawl into every nook and cranny!
Now is the time to learn for the baby as the brain development is the fastest and my wife has bought some expensive language learning kit. Forgot the name, but I'll be sure to blog about it later!
Cheers!

Still coughing but getting better

This itchy dry cough of mine is finally on the road to recovery. I'm still ccoughing pretty hard when the throat gets irritated. However the frequency of coughing bout is less frequent now.
When to see another family doctor. This time he prescribe some cough tablet for phlegm control and a very drowsy cough mixture for night time use so I can sleep better. Woke up a bit drowsy though. Perhaps that is due to coughing fits halfway through the night and I have to get up to change my sweaty clothes and take some medicine to sooth my irritated throat to prevent further coughing.
Sigh! I really hate this dry cough. I use to get it every year, but managed to keep my flu package at bay for a couple of years now thanks to my weekly 20 minutes run rounf the park. The jog really strengthened my immunity against the flu package which usually consist of sore throat, cold, fever and then that long winded dry cough which takes several weeks to cure.
This time round the sore throat and cold didn't strike but went straight to the dry cough starting with a slightly mild fever.
Oh, well i'm getting my voice back but I still cough whenever I speak on the phone or do any extended talking. Still sounded like Rod Stewert with that sexy raspy voice!
I guess another few more days should do the trick! Hope so too coz i'm teaching Sunday school and the following week, worship leading! Had to swap my schedule because of this terrible dry cough which disrupted my planned schedule!

Going for Chinese Medicine Remedy for Dry Cough

I have enough of this cough, cough, cough! It is so irritating! I decided to try Chinese medicine remedy for this dry cough instead. Since the antibiotics and other Western medicine is not working may as well try the Eastern medicine instead. It uses herbs and ginseng for treatment.



So a quick pop in to Vie Onn in Section 14 PJ, a quick consultation with the Chinese sinseh and he recommended this Chong Choe Hou Pui Loh cough syrup. Never heard it before but he says it is more effective than the Pei Pah Gou. Well I was using Pei Pah Gou and it did help to sooth my sore throat and reduce my cough at night, so if this was more potent, so let's give it a try!

Next he recommended some herbs call Pou Sam So, the English translation is American Ginseng Root, which didn't seem to translate it correctly. I guess the West still got a lot to catch up with it comes to Chinese herbal medicine, or I suppose there wasn't a proper English name equivalent for this medicinal herb. I was to take this RM10 pack of herbs, boil it with a pinch of salt and drink it. Since I was a little more desperate than that, I decided to just use the office kettle and pour hot water over it. It may not be so effective to extract the essence but will have to do for now. I got another pack to really give it a boil when I went home.

Later I'm going to give this coke + salt drink to sooth my sore throat. It helps some. And it would be much better than taking whiskey neat which I think would really make my throat more sore than cured though the alcohol would kill the bacteria just the same except that it's going to be tough on my throat!

Let's see if the above remedy will do its job coz I'm rather fed up with the cough!

Dry cough and sore throat getting bad

Can't stand this dry cough anymore. It is beginning to become sore throat as well. This persistent dry cough means I must stay away from air condition room as that would aggravate it. The doctors prescription was completed and yet there was no remedy and relief. The antibiotics should have done the trick but looks like this strain is resistant to it. May as well don't take antibiotics after all that might make the bacterial resistant to it and I don't want that to happen.

Now trying home remedies like drinking apple cider vinegar, herbal drinks and sometimes going to extreme when I can't stand the coughing any more by gargling with super salted water or mouth wash. And the most extreme method by gargling with whisky (and drinking some of it). The burning sensation and hopefully the alcohol will kill the germs. However I don't think doing that was good for my throat either.




Just went to Tesco and bought a couple of Coca cola. Plan to chill it, then mix it with salt and drinking it. However cold drinks are not good for the throat either although it soothes the throat for a little while. The concoction of salt and Coca-cola it seems will provide some relief.

With the help of some off-the-shelf cough medication I hope to kick this dry cough outta my system at the very least.

It's been a long while since my last bout of terrible flu package. This time there is no running nose, which was usually the beginning. Now it just jump right into the cough with a quick mild fever, then the sore throat comes. Symtoms sequence pretty much in reverse compared to last time. Sigh! Of the entire flu package that I usually catch, the dry cough is the most irritating of all the stages!

Why so many in the family got ailment?

Why the men in the family are sick? Perhaps we are under spiritual attack or something. My elder brother-in-law has been fighting the tumour in his head for the past 2 years and seem to hanging on with his mostly vegetarian diet and supplements boosting. All of a sudden the sky was thrown at the family and now comes trial and tribulation.

During CNY my dad-in-law has a nasty fall resulting in brain trauma though finally he is given the all clear and checked into a nursing home. My brother-in-law has his Still's Disease flare up during CNY and now still fighting it pretty hard. And myself, maybe consider it mild, but this dry cough of mine is certainly very irritating and I had it for a week already. I'm beginning to suspect that I may have picked up some strong bug while visiting the infirmed in UH.

Then my baby fell from our bed because missus was overly concern with her brother when she pick up a phone call and completely neglected to place baby in a safe place like the baby cot or surround the bed with pillow barrier and he just rolled over to the side. To ensure she don't jump out like that I've muted the fax and phone in the master bedroom. So only the downstairs phone will ring.

Trouble seems to come in waves and this wave is a nasty one. Some dark forces is at work here like a predator hunting for its prey and looking out for weak links in the family to strike and cause terror. Going to have to weather this dark storm till it blows over and let it settle down.

Looking for a good nursing home

Finally my dad-in-law was discharged yesterday after the doctor gave the all clear from his MRSA infection. However he still needs care and the best option now is check him into a good nursing home where they can give the attention and care to him.
Lena brother and sister has scouted a few and decided to check him in to a nursing home just opposite of UH. It was reasonably affordable at about RM1200 per month.
However on the second day while checking up on her dad, they find the care given was rather deplorable. Although this nursing was recommended by an aunt who has stayed there previously perhaps her condition was not as serious as my dad-in-law.
He was almost neglected due to his immobolized condition and the nurses, though qualified did not seem to know what they are doing. They didn't call us when they have run out of his clean clothing and just let him covered with a thin layer of sarung.
Because of the many complaints she decided to look for another good nursing home or bring him back to the house. I think the best bet is still nursing home as there isn't any place on the ground floor unless we do major reorganizing of the furnitures. Besides we don't have the strength and manpower to carry him from the bed to the wheelchair and do physiotherapy.
Anyway will just have to check out the other nursing homes which are priced higher which hopefully provide better nursing care.