Farewell Yew Jin!

I remember during internship at Sea Consortium, even though I'm only there for half a year, I feel sadness as colleagues leave the company. And slowly, when I transit to my 2nd job, I've learned that people come and go for good, for a better prospects and for a better future for themselves.

This is the little chocolate that Yew Jin gave for each of us as he leaves, which I suspect it is the stolen bars from his kid's bucket (hahaha...). I didn't really work with him on projects, and although his seat is just behind mine, we've seldom meet. The only occasion is when he need some programming help on web stuff that he is not familiar with.

Farewell Yew Jin!

BPA-free Bottle? use Glass Bottle!

Weeks back, we've heard of BPA-free bottles, from SL and KH that visited us. While nothing more was mentioned except that they prefer a brand that sound something like "num" (which I guess is MAM), I've start googling around today and do some research.

A short excerpt from Wikipedia:

Bisphenol A, commonly abbreviated as BPA, is an organic compound with two phenol functional groups. It is a difunctional building block of several important polymers and polymer additives. With an annual production of approximately 3 million tonnes, it is an important monomer in the production of polycarbonate.

Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s, concerns about the use of Bisphenol A in consumer products grabbed headlines in 2008 when several governments issued reports questioning its safety, and some retailers pulled products made from it off their shelves.

So that's what BPA is, and apparently, according to this buzz post, Avent appears to be one of manufacturers that is still producing non BPA free bottles. The post compare BPA with Tobacco, in which many studies had shown that Cigarette is harmful and yet occasional you'll heard some smokers telling about it isn't that harmful as compare to what was exhausted from petrol engines.

Take a further look at AVENT's website, and their response to this issue specifically:

Are Philips AVENT’s polycarbonate baby bottles safe?
As recently as April 2008, the FDA reconfirmed its long standing view regarding the safety of polycarbonate for food contact, including baby feeding bottles concluding that “…products containing BPA currently on the market are safe and that exposure levels to BPA from food contact materials, including for infants and children, are below those that may cause health effects.” This conclusion is consistent with studies conducted by regulatory bodies in Europe and Japan.

Well, while I'm confident that AVENT bottles are alright for my baby, let's continue on to research further on what was being reported of BPA and bottles.

From the AVENT's site, I've followed the link to http://www.bisphenol-a.org/human/consafety.html which is written by the Polycarbonate/BPA Global Group. Certainly that it will be biased, but after reading the findings and the citation that they've claimed, it is quite promissing. Then, you may also refer to this for the opposite study that mentioned US FDA's assessment isn't correct and even more here.

There are, however, some guildlines that as parents, we shall follow to avoid possibilly more amount of BPA to be leaked into the milk. Refer to BabySafe by the Environmental Working Group which give a simple and yet comprehensive information on safely for your baby.

Surprisingly, the MUM's brand of product isn't all BPA free according to the Z Recommendation, maybe only those bottles that could expose to high temperature are of their concern. Although on AVENT website, it says that they are now producing BPA free bottles, I'm sure it haven't arrive at the local market yet and even if it does so, mines are not BPA-free bottles.

As a science graduate, I would love to do experiments and study on BPA myself if possible, but ofcourse I can't for obvious reason. And to the strictest sense, it is not safe to heat plastic stuff (polymer of any sort) at high heat, no matter if you use BPA free or non-BPA free ones. However, we've seen now bakery shops are using highly flexible baking tray that is "safe", at least you eat them every now and then. And back to the baby safety, a breast feeding mum may need to avoid any kind of drink in a disposable cup, especially hot drink, as that are likely to have BPA (or any sort of possibly harmful leaks) as well which will inturn consumed by the infant by means of breast feeding.

Yes, so after reading all these stuff, it is guarantte to be safe to use a Glass Milk Bottle instead! (which I wanted in fact, but there is none in the store!)

Update: Further search, I've found that the very kiasu and kiasi Singapore, its Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) announced that it is not banning these non BPA-free bottles and it is safe for use.

How's the feeling of being a father?

This is the question that many had asked and I pondered about what to answer. If you ask me about consumer behavior, like how would you feel when you greet your customer with a high tone "Hello, Good Morning Sir", as compare to "Howdy!" in local context here, I could analyze and tell you what is the feeling of the person being greeted.

But come to the question of what's my own feeling of being a father, certainly, that's a complex question to me, as I could not analyze! Well, but I got a simple answer: Being a daddy is exciting, challenging and very enjoying!

My baby currently is being feed more than 8 times a day, sometimes is even 13 times a day. As we are working towards the schedule of 8 times a day, and ensure full feeding each time and no snacking for him, it is rather hard for this very first 2 weeks since the baby is still adjusting to many factors and his digestion system becoming better each day.

As of today, breast milk supply couldn't cope with the demand of our little boy and one and only box of milk power is running low. Confinement lady warned me that a small tin one will last only for 5 days while a medium one will last for 1 week!


Thus, the quest for more breast milk is on the move, we've yet to figure out what is the best food that can boost breast milk, and now we are on a 2 and a half hour feeding or pumping schedule to ensure that there is enough simulation and let-down reflex. The highest record so far for pumping is 3.5oz (pumped for 1.5 hour), which on average is 2oz.


Baby is growing very well, he stool after every feeding and wet the diapers as well very often. He'll cry when he is hungry and when the diaper is wet. And, for new parents, he'll also cry when he is trying to stool, since he feel uncomfortable at the bowel and trying to push (you'll see his face turning red). Watch out also, is while changing diaper, he'll sometimes give surprise by peeing on you! :-D

Baby Cries!!!

My little life crying!













Check out more photos at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/choongseng/LittleGiftOfLifeFromGod

Little new life makes us daddy and mummy.

A photo speaks a thousand words, it was a 12 hours marathon, and our little baby found his way to the world!

We are very thankful for this little life that God had given to us.

We praise God for his grace upon us throughout the 10 months and this very final day.

We thank God for answering our prayers, to have the child born at a good timing while we've got prepared.

All the praises belongs to God and Jesus Christ our Lord, thanks be to God!

Amen!

Bicycle disassembled! and unlocked too!

We got some little hard time last sunday morning, where we went back to our old rented place at Jurong East and collect my bicycle.

The bicycle is rusted to the extend that one of the brake wire is even broken due to extensive rust and erosion. And we even got a big problem, because the car boot wasn't enough to keep it without disassembling and it got worst as I've totally forgotten about the unlocking number.

But at the end, I've managed to disassemble it with one of the wheels locked with my numbered lock. And that's what you see in the picture, it is now siting in my study room, which is also the baby room to-be.

Thank God, after a few days of trying the numbers, it got unlocked and opened! that explains my MSN nick of 3870!

Yummy Egg Tart

Big boss bought this for us, rating 9 out of 10, nice fragrance as soon as you put you nose near to it and crispy base. Only cons is.. a little too sweet.

I've no idea where was it from, judging from the box that I've a glimpse of it, it should be some famous chinese traditional bakery shop.

If you know where it was from, post in the comment please!

New Neighbours - Samuel and Joyce!

On the friday that had just passed, I've got new neighbours! They don't stay next nor opposite my house though, but the seats beside me in my office.

Samuel and Joyce - both graphics designer, had shifted from 3rd floor office to the 6th floor so that we could work together easier on certain projects.

My Powershot A95 - Damaged and Fixed

I've got back my camera! Got it back from my sister-in-law after her Taiwan trip. I'm not sure due to what reason, which I highly suspect it is the fault of the CF card, which it makes my A95 CF slot pins got slated. 2 pins are slightly slanted and 1 pin totally bended like a rainbow.

As a "born engineer", I've started to disassemble it as soon as I found the fault in the very Friday morning. And that make me late for work, it was not a good day for me, as I'm upset over the possibility of either changing a new camera or send it for repair, which both will cost pretty much.

Well, anyway, I try my luck and see if Canon will sell me the parts. I emailed them:

Type of Enquiry: Help
Specific Enquiry: Cameras
Product Model: A95
Enquiry:
My A95's CF card slot's pins are slanted, probably due to the CF card
insertion/rejection problem. Would like to know how much will it cost for a
repair to replace that part?

Alternatively, am I able to purchase the particular part (CY1-6357-000) so
that I can do the repair job myself as my camera is no longer under
warranty and I don't wish to spend much.

Thanks!

Apparently, I've manage to get a pdf copy of the service manual and thus the part no.

Canon is pretty prompt in response, I've got the email on the day itself in the evening, and it read:

Thank you for your enquiry.

Without having the opportunity to check the camera we are unable to
determine the cause of fault.

We advise you to send in the camera to our Customer Service Centre for
checking.

The service charge are $60.00 excluding gst & spare parts.There is no
assessment charge for checking and it will takes about 5 to 10 working days
depending on spare parts availability. There is an additional express
charge of $42.80 within 5 working hours and $26.75 within 3 working days.

PS: Based on the description given below, the estimate cost of repair is
$90.00 inclusive of gst and service charge. We do not sell spare parts and
please bring in the camera for servicing.

So, that's a whopping 90 bucks that I have to pay to have it repaired. Certainly, as it isn't a very big issue, I believe I could have fix it by bending the pins back. So, my repair work started that very night. And I carefully bend the pins back to the best near original style and test it with the CF card that I have.

As I'm very eager to get the camera disassembled in the early morning, I've not recorded down the positions of the screws that I've unscrewed from the camera. Apparently there are many different sizes of screws! That is one of the reason why I would want to quickly get it done that very night, while my memory about the screws are still fresh!

So, all together it took me about 2 hours to get it back in one piece and I've got it back working perfectly as before! Well, its image quality was not affected although Jacky told me that the electronics are very sensitive and once opened it is gone case.

A lesson learned is.... to use with extra care! and never force push in the CF card if you feel something is stucked, it gonna be something wrong, stop and check on it! I've also found that the design is really genius, all the parts in the camera are well designed to be in place and secure nicely by design.

And now, I'm back shotting!

Sunny day, laundry time.

It was a sunny saturday! The sun is superb bright and it brighten up our day! So we started our laundry activity.

My living room curtains, washed and sun dried all within the few hours around noon time. We've also got our blankets and pillows under the sun as well to have them screened under the ultra violet light that kills whatever that is harmful.

My Bike -- still alive after a year

That's the Martini bicycle that I've forgotten to bring it over when I shift my stuff to my new place. It had been abandoned there for a year now! (plus a few months!)

I'm glad that it is still alive. The picture is from Richard, who just shifted to nearby block. :-D... There's where he'll start his new phase of life staying in Singapore and taking 160 from custom straight back to Jurong East.


It seems like they've even repainted the wall and still my bicycle is nicely placed at the same position.

Annoying Facebook Applications - ignore all requests!

Yes, I've a facebook account. But... I'm not doing anything with it except that my friends have so and invited me. It is primarily used to network all my long never meet classmates and friends.

Well, although as a guy that write computer software, I admire and appreciate the facebook platform that allows developers to create many wonderful "applications", I'm really get fed up with all the invitations. Every now and then, there is an email coming into my mailbox, which reminded me that I still have a facebook account and there is an invitation!

The problem is not me being "anti-social" in the cyber world, but it was those annoying facebook applications that do not much thing and keep spreading in the wild. The fact that you couldn't view about what application is that without accepting the invitation and allow the application to access your profile is a real big pivacy worm in the wild!

Picture says a thousand words, with 3 clicks on my mouse button, I've ignored 182 application requests/invitations.

The "aftermath" of petrol price hike

These are some photos contributed by my colleague, Richard! Long queues at every single petrol kiosk. He queued for one hour to get his turn to pump.













What to expect next? with electricity prices and food prices on the rise, life is not going to be easy.

Malaysia Petrol Hike - Time to ride a bicycle

It finally came true. The Malaysia government had been subsiding all the petrol in the country by about 50%. While it was still "affordable" for the government to do so in the past decade, it is no longer feasible.

Today's breaking news in Malaysia was all about the petrol prices. As our Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi declared, pump prices of petrol will rise by about 41% (RM0.833) from RM1.92 to RM2.7 per liter and diesel will rise by about 67% (RM1.00) from RM1.50 to RM2.58.

Follow on the announcement, the locals responded with long queue at all petrol stations nation wide. This wasn't surprise, it did happened during the last revision at the beginning of the year.

2 months ago, similar queues were seen in Japan as well, but that was due to the tax bill being expired and it could get in time to reinstate. Japanese rush to the petrol kiosks to pump petrol at the before tax prices.

As of now, it seems that the petrol prices will continue to rise to the market price and fluctuate by August, that will mark the end of cheap petrol in Malaysia.

The government however, is giving out rebate for car owners when they renew their road tax. An annual cash rebate of RM625 for owners of cars with engine capacity of up to 2,000 cc and pick up trucks and jeeps of up to 2500 cc. Owners of private motorcycles of engine capacity of up to 250 cc will be paid a cash rebate of RM150 per year, according to the minister's announcement.
(And I think my dad's over 2,000 cc cars will only be entitled to a RM200 rebate annually)

I was joking to John though, that his parent's shop business will boom! Because his parent operate a motorcycle and bicycle shop. I do believe so, it is a good time for everyone to own a bicycle and cycle in replacement of petrol-fueled car.

Well, my dad manage to fill all his cars' tanks except on that had run out of battery.

How about you?
How long did you queued and how much you've saved as compare to the price after the hike?

It would be interesting to see if you post your comments on, as so far I've heard of some giving up the long queue, some complaint about the government and some isn't much affected by it.

StreetDirectory.com's Annoying SPAM

StreetDirectory.com starts to send out these spammy messages some long time back. The very first time when it was sent out, it was with all broken links and broken layout. And well, although this time it was a quite ok layout and simple, it went straight to my SPAM box in gmail.

Every email that they sent out, seems to have the same type of links, promoting the FlowerAdvisor, wines, champagne or last time was some french restaurant. And worst of all, it was sent via Gmail, I don't care if it is from gmail server or not, but the from field is Gmail. What a terrible marketing.

Maybe I should simply unsubscribe from the list...

Just ask "Dr Google"

This caught my attention while reading thru the email from Synovate In:fact newsletter.

Just ask 'Dr Google'

So if doctors are losing ground, just who (or what) is filling the healthcare information gap?

At least one quarter of our respondents relied on primary sources of advice other than doctors. To compound this, about half agreed that they would only take the medication prescribed by their doctor if their other research backed it up! Most passionate about this were the Malaysians at 82%.

And true enough, although I'm not among those about who took part in the survey, I exercise that behaviour. Certainly, doctors are not super beings that knows 100% of your condition and infact you know the best of yourself. But provided you have the relevant and applicable knowledge to make decision on yourself, you better follow the doctors.

Another possibility that the survey result didn't study on is, the integrity of doctors. Many Malaysians may have lost their respect for doctors as the news reports many incidents of doctors incompetency as well as faud cases.

You can read the full article at Synovate In:fact May 2008.

Labour Day @ Labrador Park

It was a very sunny day, 1st of May, the labour day in asia countries. My church organized an outing to the Labrador Park at the West of Singapore.

Darren is the key person that book the BBQ pit and ordered the BBQ stuff. Darren and I reach there earlier than anyone else, to receive the BBQ food and stuff from the vendor. And well, the pit that we've booked isn't that near to the car park and we really need help to carried the 2 big boxes of chilled food and another box of BBQ accessories.

While we are walking to the pit, there are these 3 workers who helped us to carry those stuff voluntarily. Only until we've put all at the resting point beside the pit, they've asked me to give them some money for their "hard work". This is really.... And even more, when Darren came back from washroom, he told me that he had given another few bucks for them to buy softdrink. Oh man, these people are really spoilers. Lesson of the day, there's no free lunch.

I've taken this photo along the way, and I'm not sure what they are doing and it looks like they are digging some shell creatures for fishing.

Ah Pek Wesley Lee!

The very first thing that we do when Siew Voon, "the water supplier" came, make the ribena drink and chill it!
This is the pit that we've booked, Berlayer Battery. It was very very hot even until early evening. And Sean said that it is always the case, when we go for outing, everyone prayed that it will not be rainy, so God answered our prayer with a big hot sun. :-D

Ah Pek Lee in action, showing us how to play the "freebies", of which he had learn from his daughter.

That's Andy's soccer ball, he had tried to pump it and accidentally broke the pumping needle and at the end we have a flatten ball instead.

The sea view, you'll see all sorts ships though.

John Calvin, posturing while Darren take a shot with his aging but still working faithfully Canon G2 Camera.
The ladies and the kids, while the guys went for soccer.

Xue Yin with John Calvin

Andy with his sun glasses (at the very left), see him in action for the game.

Darren! The teacher to be in the coming months.

The little boy must be wondering why these adults play with a flatten rather than playing with him with his smaller version but inflated one.


Another batch of the crowd came, Darren's friends with family. I'm really bad to forgot their names.

Sean, taking the risk of falling off the staircase to take the haning spider with his Canon 400D.

And follow by all others with thier gadgets.

The jeti, viewed from the top of the hill.

Wee Tat, posturing as the thinker - Le Penseur.

Trying to shot the special sunlight effect with my humble A95.

Finally the party starts, we've started to grill the food. Shown here are the volunteers that grilled the meat for all of us. (well... some of them is not well done grilled!)

Catch the sunset.

Finally, my wife made it here after work. And we all enjoyed the time in groups chit chating.