Baby 17 Months Old

My baby is 17 months old! And according to Baby Centre, "you may notice baby ability to do things by himself such as undressing herself, brushing her teeth without your help and tenderly nursing her dolls and stuffed animals. She's learning how to take care of herself, and others and she'll refine this ability as she gets older."

Well, he still a long way off for that. But I did notice he is asserting himself and wants things his way or he will throw a tantrum or fake cries. Can't be giving in to whatever baby wants as that is a sure way to spoil him. Loving him is sometimes requires doing some tough love, as he would need discipline. Because in future, a disciplined person would be able to take care of himself as well as others.

Ady boy beginning to assert himself and wants his way. I think time for discipline. Any suggestion for toddler this young?

Hmm... Ady boy beginning to assert himself and wants his way. I think time for discipline. Any suggestion for toddler this young? It would be good to start early otherwise it will become difficult when he gets older. Yet on the other hand we would like him to explore the world and learn new things for child development. Must be a way to balance what he can and cannot do. Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

Super heavy rain, super traffic jam!

The heavy rain brought about a very massive Friday traffic jam! Took me double the time to get pass rush hour traffic. On top of that, almost had near collision with another car when the car ahead stop suddenly. Fortunately my brand new tires plus my quick reaction avoided knocking the car in front of me. Had to move away from the lane as the two lady drivers negotiate on their compensation. From my quick glance there was hardly any dent. Anyway the slow stop and go traffic made me rather sleepy and tired. And many parts of the road was catching the running waters slowing down traffic further. A flooded road was not so easy to drive. Eventually arrived home in one piece! Phew! Tired but at least home sweet home for now.

Chartis Insurance Failure to Pay Reimbursement and many others

Insurance companies are not as trustworthy as before. They take our money easily but fail to reimburse when it comes to claims giving excuses such as non-failure to comply to some obscure terms or information or on a technicality. Chartis, MAA, IHM (now dead), and what other insurance companies? And yet, when Obama bailed out AIA, they have the gall to pay large hefty bonuses to themselves giving excuses that it was in their contract!

I have seen the failure of payment by these money leeching insurance company who find ways and means not to fulfill their obligation. It was so easy for them to say if you sign up for this policy or that policy they will reimburse you when something happens to you just so they can close the deal. But when it comes to actual claim, they will say you didn't disclose this/that, or the illness you mentioned occur on a different date stated or some other technicality. Simply put, they will wriggle themselves out from fulfilling their obligation.

Default Cluster Size for NTFS, FAT32, exFAT

I needed to reformat my SanDisk 16GB USB flash drive to NTFS file format as I wanted to transfer a large 9++ GB movie file to view it on my media player box. So when the format dialog box came up, I was wondering what would be the best default cluster size for NTFS and what did the "default allocation size" meant.

 

Although I would like to keep my thumbdrive in its default format of FAT32, it was not able to handle any files larger than 4 GB. NTFS filesystem although has more features (encryption, compression, ownership, etc.), it would also mean using up more computer resource in Windows when processing files. Hence I still prefer the simpler FAT 32 drive format, but I have no choice here as the file size was greater than 4 GB. (Note: exFAT or extended FAT can store files larger than 4GB but this disk format is not supported by many media boxes, unfortunately! It was introduced to overcome the 4GB limit but due to lack of support from many devices, access to the files would be limited to Windows Vista/7 onwards.)

Baby Fall Down From Cot

Oh, dear! Baby fell down from the baby cot! Don't how he managed to climb out from it. Cry like mad of course! Will have to observe him as the height was quite high. Wife said it is time to use playpen where the side walls are higher and the distance from ground much less.

---[update 11/10/11]---

@klroadblock roadworks at entry to section 17 PJ from former rothman circle

What they doing? Blocking everybody

Streamyx is absolutely bad today!

It's been a week long and Streamyx is still trying to fix its server or junction box or whatever. The connection is intermittent and if I do connect, is absolutely horrendously slow! Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android

[update 13/10/11]

How is one suppose to work if streamyx slows down to a crawl every few days? And this is definitely got nothing to do with the damaged undersea cable to the USA. Even accessing local website and data is so, so, so slow! Thumbs down yet again for streamyx. I think there is too many problems with streamyx for the month of October.

Streamyx down again due to Sg Way exchange problem

And yet again, my office streamyx was down again. Just last week we couldn't connect for more than 24 hours due to streamyx server problem. And now due to an exchange junction in Sungai Way the internet was down since 6am this morning.

Couldn't do any work until they fix it. So no choice but to wait for a few more hours. I requested to boss to switch to UNIFI. Perhaps that would resolve some of the frequent downtime of streamyx. The cost will double and there is no guarantee it will have more uptime since it is under the telecom company namely TM.

I have a friend who was complaining like mad about his poor download speed from UNIFI. Never getting the 80-90% of the stated speed. But basically UNIFI should be working according to as much as the stated figure.

Anyway never know until try. But once in will have to use it for the contract period.

Meanwhile my recent upgrade to windows 7 has left my dial-up modem dead. There is no drivers for it. So I can't even use the old slow dial-up to access internet.

Only a quick tap here using my mobile phone to kvetch a little!

---[update 11/10/11] ---

be weary of email misinformation

Friends and contacts and mean well when they pass you bits and pieces of trivia via email. Unfortunately some of those information is more like misinformation. I don't know why some people got so much time in their hands to concoct such fallacies, incorrect understanding as well as myths and urban legends. And once it was let loose into the wild wide world of web, it will become viral and spreads.

 

The thing is, some of this bits of misinformation seemed plausible. Especially if you don't have the background academic knowledge or remembering a partial bit of information that you may have studied a long time ago but then you forget and when you receive the email, the explanation seem rather possible because your memory was a bit hazy on that subject matter. This brings to mind the show, "Are you better than a fifth grade" reality show. And yes, we don't have perfect memory, and things that we studied at one time is gone with the wind after many years of not referencing it in our brain.

 

Although for me, I still have good recollection of some of things that I have studied especially on those subject matters that I liked (but unfortunately for me, I don't know why I'm so poor at remembering names with people that I met! Must be the way my brain is differently wired). Anyway, we don't all have that good memory and we use whatever means to memorized information be they important or trivia.

 

So whenever I receive emails about some interesting discovery, trivia, and even warnings, it is best to do a little research online to find out just how accurate those information. Some people just have too much time in their hands, and will take real information and give it a little twist. So when you receive it, the information seems correct at first glance, but in reality it is already in error due to bad interpretation or overly simplistic view or misunderstood or could even be a joke or malicious intent of creating disinformation.

 

Thank goodness for sites like Snopes, BreakTheChain and various website and individuals trying to debunked bad information. Yes, internet communication (websites and emails) may be the best thing that has happened because it provide vast information for your research and reading at the touch of the button. And yet there are also sites or individuals whose grasp of their subject matter that may be less than well researched or poorly understood or just plainly made wrong intentionally to create disinformation.

 

So while you are surfing around or receiving emails with those pieces of trivia, do be weary of misinformation. Don't be lazy, but do a little bit of research and find out its accuracy before passing it along to your friends and family. Perhaps you might learn a thing or two about the subject matter that was circulating in the wild and avoid the disinformation and to inform the sender that the information they are sending should be more accurate so that they won't learn the wrong thing and pass bad information around.

 

 

 

 

 

Once a week exercise is better than nothing

I had a lively discussion with my colleague about exercise. Due to work and other commitment, I suppose a once a week exercise is better than nothing at all. Exercise is important as it improves our overall health fitness level and staves off illness. And if we do get caught with a malady, the boosted immunity will help you to recover much faster.  -- ..

 

Although the simplest of all exercise is walking, I found that rather mild in comparison to running. Typically the basic recommended amount of exercise is three times a week for a continuous 30 minutes mild workout. Getting just once a week exercise is already so difficult to schedule, so I go for the once a week approach with a simple jog of between 15 minutes to 25 minutes.

 

It took me a long time to get that kind of physical fitness running level despite doing it once a week. The first time I did a run, it was terrible! Barely able to do a continuous run even for a 50 meters distance! It took a lot effort to try again and again using run-walk-run to slowly build it up!

 

Eventually I could run continuously for 10 minutes, than slowly push it up to 15 minutes, with a one minute of walking break before going for another 5 to 10 minutes run. Nowadays I manage to get myself to go for a full 20 minutes to 25 minutes non-stop run before quitting. I notice if you don't attempt to run too fast too hard, you can get longer mileage.

 

A good pair of shoes is important too. When I injured my plantar fascia tendon, it was excruciatingly painful for one whole year! I had to lay off running, and walking was a big pain at the sole of my feet. I come sympathize with a fellow church goer as she too recently got plantar fasciitis. This pain is very uncomfortable and healing process is really slow. Even with so many prayers for healing, it still took time for such a wish to be granted.

 

Though now my feet is no longer suffering too much from plantar fasciitis, I can say it is about 90% cured. I need to be careful. So a good foot insert is necessary to provide cushioning while at the same time provide stability. Mind you, those foot inserts are not cheap!

 

Anyway, it is good to be back running and keeping fit. Although I would like to do more than once a week of exercise, sometimes other condition such as the potential for plantar fasciitis to happen as well as time constraint and weather condition makes it a little difficult to do more.

 

So in this case, the once a week exercise is better than not doing any exercise at all!

Which #Android Phone Brand You Like?

Each Android phone maker is not the same. There is HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Sony, and various others as well as the made in Malaysia CSL.

I may not have tried them all, but having owned a Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro, briefly with HTC Wildfire and now using HTC Cha Cha, played with my sis-in-law's Samsung Android mobile phone.

I find I liked HTC. The interface and layout is much better thought out. The battery is a little more lasting but still gets drained during heavy usage. And there is a lot more widgets available for the android desktop and the contacts has better integration not just with Google, but also with Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps in future it might integrate with LinkedIn now that they have IPOed.

Anyway I'm enjoying my new HTC Cha Cha so going to tango with it while I figure out what to do with my Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro.

---[update 11/10/11]---

Taking a break at Papa Rich the Curve

It was a weekend out for baby and family. Decided to take a coffee break at Papa Rich at The Curve KL shopping mall.

Baby was having a gala time roaming about Metrojaya despite the disapproval from mom. I tried to carry him but boys will be boys, especially inquisitive active boys! At 16 months old, he has a very curious mind. And yes he loves exploring!

As papa, will have to shadow him as he goes about pointing out interesting things and make sure he didn't mess up the displays and go where he was not suppose to go.

After an hours of following him, I needed a break! Mom and grandma came around after their little shopping. They needed to go back as the weekend cleaners would be at the house soon.

Anyway, I decided to take a break here at Papa Rich, Curve shopping mall. The house wasn't that far and I'll just walk back once I'm done.

Service here is a little poor as the waiters and waitresses seem to just ignore me. They are either tired or poorly trained. Anyway, i got my little cuppa. Once I'm done with this little blogging, I'm outa here!

Heiyah! As my little boy would exclaim! Ciao!