Getting the Best Out of My Life

Not feeling that for the last 2 days......the throat was not at its best. Just that I'm gulping down plenty of water coupled with supplements, the sore throat can't show its ugly head.

Hopefully it gets better by Sunday. The worse thing is lunch or dinner without chilli , it would be tasteless......... and have to consider my throat too.......sigh!!!!

Hmmmm I'll be on leave for the whole of next week. One thing I need to settle is to finalise the Christmas Drama 2007's script. Have to put it in details then sit down with the Music Director to fit in the right songs. Calling the right people to play the respective roles. Yeah, no Christmas holiday for me during that period but I'm sure it'll be fun seeing the guys/gals having their practices, getting their props/costumes, there will surely be times of rolling on the floor laughing over misquoted lines.

Going to take the role of a wedding planner as well for a close friend. His big day - 22 Sept 07 to be held in church too. We normally have a core group helping out in each wedding so it'll be quite easy with the team assisting. The groom-to-be will be the one who panics, not me....hehe... but there's a checklist to follow. As long as all the steps are taken, it should be smooth sailing.
Tags: Sore Throat, Christmas Drama, Christmas, Wedding Planner, Wedding

Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2007

A friend of mine was the main printer for the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2007's invitation cards for the Minsitry of Tourism. He brought boxes of unfolded invitation cards to church last Sunday and a group of us including children quickly helped him out. I was the quality control guy ensuring the cards were folded properly. Otherwise his products could be rejected if he send it over to the Ministry.

We were joking that we could sneak into the big event and witness the opening ceremony with the invitation cards that we were folding....... hahaha and the Grand Finale to be held on 2 Sept 2007 too. I could have been there just now but lazy to travel all the the way there - Putrajaya.

Could have kept those cards and put our name there and stand beside those dignitories that would be there. It would have been a beautiful night for sure.

Different days have been allocated for different teams to showcase their fireworks. For those photographers who are keen to capture those magnificent fireworks display, here's some tips for taking pictures on those fireworks display at night.

Tags: Malaysia International Fireworks Competition 2007, Malaysia, Putrajaya, Fireworks

Mass Emergency SMS Notification

Lately, the newspapers did report on certain SMS being unsolicited and sent out to telcos customers without them requesting for it and yet get charged for it. This controversial issue was highlighted in Screenshots. At certain times, unsolicited SMS would be welcomed by customers.

In the cities of Zhanjiang, Maoming and Meizhou in China, a tropical storm was said to be approaching these cities and rumour started as early as 4.00 a.m. (12 Aug) with this SMS message "Huge rainstorm in Leizhou Peninsula began to spread like a plague in those areas."

At the point of receiving such SMS message, the rumour began. Government officials were notified of such SMS message but now the message has turned to "Huge earthquake will be triggered by the rainstorm in Zhanjiang."

One of the town mayor who went out to work noticed the citizens lingering outside houses, offices, buildings and checked on the peculiar situation. Now he has heard that the SMS message became "the huge rainstorm in Leizhou will trigger off an earthquake."

The Zhanjiang Earthquake Bureau and the Zhanjiang Weather Observatory heard about the rumour. Not long after that, they decided to use the Weather Observatory's SMS emergency notification system to disseminate an accurate information to dispel the rumoured message being spread via SMS message. At the rate of 500,000 SMS message per hour, the local government was able to send out messages to the 1,400,000 mobile telephone users in the city.

* At 8.41a.m., the following was sent out:-

"The Zhanjiang city Earthquake Bureau and Weather Observatory reminds you: there has not been any earthquakes recently even though earthquake rumors began to appear at 4am this morning in the Leizhou, Wushi, Beihuo and Tanduo of Zhanjiang city. Please do not be afraid!"

* At 10:30am, a second emergency SMS notification system was issued:-

"The Zhanjiang city weather observatory gives this special reminder: the weather will be unstable for the two days, with showers and heavy rains. Please be prepared and call 12121 anytime for the latest weather report."

A success for the local government as they were able to send out 2.8 million in 3 hours. Is Malaysia ready for that sort of exercise? Instead of just harping on who sent out the rumours that de-stabilised the cities, the local government took up the responsibility to make right the situation. (Adopted from Zonaeuropa)

Tags: China, Zhanjiang, Maoming, Meizhou, SMS, SMS Message, Zhanjiang Earthquake Bureau, Zhanjiang Weather Observatory

Indian Yoga vs. Australian Yoga

With the craze going on for all sorts of Yoga practice, the Australians have caught up with it too not wanting to be left behind. The Indian Yoga was said to be the original.

At my place of stay, Yogazone is doing quite well. Yeah, my place has lots of things lately, booming! Yoga is a hot thing and even a Yoga Conference will be held in November.

Tags: Yoga, Indian Yoga, Australian Yoga, Yogazone, Yoga Conference

Now Nokia is Conducting a Recall

After a major recall by Mattel/Fisher-Price for their toys that were manufactured in China, Nokia joined the bandwagon reluctantly.

Nokia is recalling batteries sold as the Nokia-branded BL-5C battery manufactured by Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. Ltd. of Japan between December 2005 and November 2006.

The word "BL-5C" is printed on the front of the battery.
On the back of the battery, the Nokia mark appears at the top, and the battery identification number (consisting of 26 characters) is found at the bottom. If the battery identification number does not contain 26 characters, it is not subject to this product advisory.

The reason for the recall is because this batch of batteries could overheat due to a short circuit especially during re-charging time. Overall, there are 300 million of such batteries out there somewhere but only 46 million needed to be recalled (with the criteria as listed above) Phew!!!!!! ...................

So, not only China made goods are useless, even Japanese made products could be a suspect now. All this due to non-stringent quality assessment/quality control again or because of cost-cutting measures that caused such an issue?????? Only the manufacturers will know.

I think those betting companies will be starting new betting schemes on what kind of products will be recalled next.
Reading: Nokia users heed this call - The Star

Tags: Nokia, Matsushita, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co Ltd, Japan, Nokia Battery, BL-5C, Overheat, Battery Identification Number, Recall

China Made Charcoal Roasted Chickens

With the recall of toys that were manufactured in China due to non-stringent quality control systems, one is not surprised to see other goods being produced at a low quality standards especially those charcoal roasted chickens.

One will puke after seeing how a rural factory could produced such chickens for consumption.
Early morning, chicken collectors would go around the neighbourhood.
House by house looking for dead chickens.
At a cost of Renminbi 1.00 per chicken, it's a steal.
A number of collectors are hired each day to do such collections.
The small factory was just like the state of a car workshop.
Carcasses was all over the compound.
Even a doggie could go near to sniff it.
The de-feathering process starts here.

Easy job - just pull the feathers out.Feathers were strewn around the small factory without any cause of concern for hygiene.

An unused bathtub was used to clean the chicken after de-feathering.
Staff walking in and out of the small factory oblivious to chickens lying around the floor.

Here is the end product - the Charcoal Roasted Chickens after some colourings were added onto it to make it real.

Another 'profit over hygiene' case!

Tags: Roasted Chicken, Charcoal, Hygiene, China Made, China, Food

Made In China

China really has to clean up its act in coming up with more stringent quality control to be imposed on factories operating within China, whether local or foreign owned. Tight scrutiny in foreign owned factories should have been done but I think 'profit over safety' blinded those foreign owners.

In a recent case where a top China official from the food and drug administration was 'executed by the authorities' due to taking bribes from health manufacturer that produced health goods which caused death to consumer(s).

Subsequently, food products exported to USA were tainted with substance that can caused illness. Toothpaste was a big issue too.

Recent days, toys manufactured by an OEM manufacturer in China, Lida Toy Co., marketed under the Fisher-Price brand have been recalled by Mattel from throughout the world. This caused its share price to drop as much as 4% from US$23.00.

The toy products being recalled are as follows:-
* 18.2 million magnetic toys globally, including 9.5 million in the United States, with magnets or magnetic parts that can be dislodged - inclusive of 7.3 million Polly Pocket dolls and accessories with magnets, 1 million Doggie Day Care magnetic toys, 683,000 Barbie and Tanner magnetic toys, and 345,000 Batman and One Piece play sets; and
* about 253,000 Pixar Sarge die-cast toy cars with lead paint were also recalled. Lead has been linked to health problems in children, including brain damage.
* Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters because their paint contains excessive amounts of lead.

After an investigation, Mattel gave an account of what has happened:-
The recall of the Sarge toy results from Mattel's increased investigation and ongoing testing procedures following the recall of select Fisher-Price toys on August 1, 2007. The toy was produced by Early Light Industrial Co., Ltd (Early Light), one of Mattel's contract manufacturing facilities in China, which subcontracted the painting of parts of the toy to another vendor, Hong Li Da (HLD), also in China. While the painting subcontractor, HLD, was required to utilize paint supplied directly from Early Light, it instead violated Mattel's standards and utilized paint from a non-authorized third-party supplier.

With dignity down the drain, the Chinese owner by the name of Zhang Shuhong had committed suicide due to the recall. That's how bad the situation is.

If you are concern as to the exact toys being recalled, you can check at Mattel's Voluntary Safety Recall Facts and click your language and respective countries. As for Fisher-Price, click its Fisher-Price's Recall Information.

Reading: What Went Wrong at Mattel - BusinessWeek
Reading: Chinese products win praise - China Daily

Tags: China Made, Toys, Mattel, Fisher-Price, Early Light Industrial Co Ltd , Hong Li Da, China, Toy Manufacturer, Recall, China Products