52nd Merdeka

Malaysia will be celebrating its 52nd year of independence on 31 August 2009. That’s 52 years of self-rule, free of the colonial overlords.

I have to stop and think about that for a moment. As someone born, if not in, at least as a citizen of, an already free nation, I take that freedom for granted. We are the masters of our own fate, but who exactly is this “we”? Who are the ones in charge now? Who do we look to for leadership? Where do we get our direction from?

More importantly, who is responsible? We have to stop thinking “someone else”, and start accepting “us” as the answer. What do we want the country to look like? We need to decide, and we need to speak up, and we need to act. We shouldn’t take things for granted. And we need to remember that “we” includes many peoples from many backgrounds. The challenge is taking these differences, allowing for these differences, while still forging ahead as one.

Here’s hoping that we can all be reasonable, be responsible, and move together as one.

1 Ramadhan, 1430H

That’s tomorrow’s date in the hijri calendar, and it marks the start of the fasting month for Muslims. Now since the hijri calendar is (sorta) a lunar calendar, and the start of Ramadhan coincides with the observation of the new moon, the fasting month begins on different days depending on which country you’re in. Some have actually started today, and some won’t start til Sunday.

Ramadhan is the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, promising rewards for the devout Muslim. I won’t go into all that, as I’m hardly the best tutor for the subject. Here in Malaysia, though, Ramadhan also coincides with the most amazing culinary delights of the year. It’s not uncommon for people to feel that you get the best foods during this time of year. From the street bazaars offering the (seemingly) unique Ramadhan and Aidilfitri fare, to the buka puasa buffets in all the top restaurants and hotels, all the best foods Malaysia has to offer make their appearance during this month. Seriously, when else are you going to find lemang in the streets? And that’s just one example.

I definitely go to the pasar Ramadhan whenever I can, to stock up on foods for the breaking of fast, or for sahur the next morning. As for the buffet treats, I haven’t tried many of them. Not that that’s necessarily because I’m at the mosque performing tarawih. Sometimes it’s just too much bother. You definitely have to book for those buka puasa dinners, cos the seats go quickly. And finding a surau for maghrib prayers can sometimes be troublesome.

That’s ok though. I figure I’m not really missing out. I shouldn’t be gorging myself on delicious foods for an hour after a full day of fasting anyway. It’s not healthy. Everything in moderation.

Here we go then. One month – 30 days – of testing your discipline, reflecting on your worthiness, appreciating all that you have, and enriching yourself.

Ramadhan Kareem! Selamat berpuasa!

I read, I write

And I share too! :-) I just started a new blog here, where I'll be sharing some of my writings.

Praise for District 9

I watched District 9 over the weekend. For an opening weekend, it didn’t seem well-anticipated. It was even playing in one of the smaller halls at GSC 1 Utama. I’m not sure if the Malaysian public had much awareness about this movie because of the low level of promotion, but I know buzz will grow through word of mouth.

To describe District 9 simply is to call it both Believable and Brilliant. A lot of people will classify this movie as a “sci-fi” movie, but I’d like to qualify that by adding “serious” as a prefix to that descriptor. Special effects are necessary for this movie, but they play a role in allowing the telling of the story, instead of being the focus for the movie. This is the first Star Wars trilogy, not the second (prequel) trilogy, if you get my meaning.

The story of District 9 is original and intriguing. Imagine if an alien ship arrived on Earth, and came to a stop hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. Now imagine a million aliens on that ship, leaderless, directionless, and suffering like boat-people washed ashore on foreign lands. How would our Governments react?

Fast forward twenty years, and the aliens are now living in a slum outside Johannesburg named – you guessed it! – District 9. There are some blanks to be filled in, and it all makes a sickening kind of sense. You can believe it happening.

Which brings me to my first word to describe the movie: Believable. The movie is presented as a mix of documentary-style footage, complete with interviews of key persons and specialists, and standard-fare footage. So viewers approach District both as a movie, and as a faux documentary. It’s done very well, with smooth edits, and everything is believable. You can see yourself watching a documentary about the aliens that came to Earth, and the controversies that followed. The acting is all of the best standards, including first-time lead actor Sharlto Copley.

This leads to my second word to describe the movie: Brilliant. This truly is a brilliant film, with an original storyline, realistic characters and amazing portrayals, both real and imagined. And lest I forget, the special effects were amazing. The alien tech is on par with the best sci-fi fare out there, and the creature effects were eerily realistic.

Like any good serious sci-fi story, District 9 holds up a mirror to our own nature and forces us to examine our mores, our beliefs, our society. It is easy to feel discouraged by the depravity and shallowness depicted in District 9. And yet, in the end, we are – thankfully – redeemed. Love survives the most horrible circumstances. Respect transcends all boundaries.

I have the greatest respect for this film, and its makers. And though there could be a sequel – District 10 – I hope they don’t make it. I hope they don’t twist this story around.

Tagging photos

Back in the day, before digital cameras, most people would whip out cameras only at special events or while on holiday. That made it easy to remember when and why pictures were taken, since you usually got them in batches of about 30 prints.

And then came the digital camera, which ushered in a whole new culture of photography. With instant results, and no need for expensive developing unless you wanted to, there was no “wastage” factor to consider when snapping a photo. There wasn’t any film to “save” for those special moments. Any moment could be a special moment.

In the beginning, of course, the one thing you were limited by was memory space. But with the ability to instantly review your photo, you could keep on snapping and delete those pictures that didn’t turn out well, ensuring that you had enough memory for the next picture. Now even that limitation is gone, with huge memory cards filling our digital cameras.

Has that led to a deterioration of standards? Maybe.

Has that opened the door to tons of photos you can’t even place any more? Probably.

Take the following picture, taken three years ago. A’isyah’s having fun. I have no idea where we are. Hehe. Just perfect.



I guess I should start tagging my photos.

Time to migrate my Friendster info

When I joined Friendster on a friend’s invite, I thought it would be a neat way to reconnect with old friends. I shared lots of personal info there in my profile info, such as all the schools I’ve been to over the years. I even shared lists of my favourite music, movies, and books. All these items are actually searchable within Friendster, allowing people to search for others who filled in the same information in their profiles. It promises one the ability to connect with others who went to the same schools as you, and who have the same interests as you.

Unfortunately for me, that promise was never fulfilled. Maybe I wasn’t active enough in Friendster. Whatever the case, when an old high school friend sent me an invite to join Facebook in 2007, I was pleasantly surprised that he managed to locate my contact after all those years. And when I joined Facebook, the most amazing thing happened. What I had been hoping for from Friendster, happened on Facebook!

Ever since then, I’ve been using Facebook and have neglected my Friendster account. And I’m not the only one. I even know someone who deleted their Friendster account to focus exclusively on Facebook.

I now value Facebook as a means to keep up-to-date with the goings on of far-flung family and friends. And it helps to maintain a (tenuous, at best) connection with all those people.

So now I’ve decided I might as well bring over all that personal info from Friendster into Facebook. I shared it before, so why not again?

A’isyah’s first experience with snow

Don’t you just love the joy of new discovery, best seen in a child’s first experience with something enjoyable? It was a year ago today that A’isyah first experienced snow.


I was browsing through my old photo archives and found that I have pictures taken exactly one year ago today, on 31 July 2008. It was on an outing to Mall of the Emirates, and we had decided to (finally!) enter Ski Dubai, the indoor snow park and ski slope. It took a while to get suited up, mainly because A’isyah refused to put on her helmet. I wasn’t about to let it slide, so we struggled to get her to put it on. Once inside though, she was quickly mesmerized by the sight of the white snow. She was too skitterish to try tobogganing and was just content to walk around, but she was fascinated by all the activity.

Four months later, on a return visit to Dubai, we went to Ski Dubai again. This second time A’isyah was more active, trying to throw snowballs and just playing around with the snow.



I can’t say I remember my first experience with snow, since I was a baby at the time, but the first time that I do remember was my family’s first winter in Sweden. I remember after the first snowfall my sis and I tried our hands at making a snowman out near the porch. It was a dismal failure. I think we managed something a few inches tall, because we underestimated the effort required to make one of those things. That, and the snow probably wasn’t right for making snowmen.

A’isyah had her snow experience at a pretty young age, but I have a feeling she’ll remember it. And it’s not just because of the pictures I think. Just a few weeks ago, she said to me that she wants to go to Mall of the Emirates, to play with snow. I told her that it’s very far away, and we can’t go there now. To which she responded with that favourite of kids everywhere: “Why?”

Maybe one day.

Tips from The Happiness Project for turning around a Bad Day

My last post was about a bad good day, so I guess it’s appropriate that the follow-up post is about a good bad day. Everyone has bad days. Maybe you had an argument with someone and that fouled your mood for the rest of the day. Maybe something didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to. A lot of times you can’t change the outcome of those events, no matter what you try.

What you can change, however, is how you let those events affect you.

Today I read a post at The Happiness Project blog about a good bad day. The author presents a total of nine tips to deal with bad days and how to turn them around to be good bad days. It’s all about how to make sure that the bad day doesn’t get you down too much.

Two tips that stand out for me are: “do something nice for someone else” and “act the way (you) want to feel”. I really do believe that kindness is its own reward. Don’t do good expecting to be rewarded for it, or even recognized for it. That’s when you get the real reward: feeling good. And when you act happy, smile, mix with other people, share light-hearted moments with others, you’ll start to feel happy. It just rubs off on you.

Go here to read the full list of 9 tips. I’d also recommend following the blog, cos it’s a fountain of good advice to manage happiness.

Here’s to happiness! May we all have more of it.

A bad good day

What the heck is a bad good day, you ask? Look at it this way: your experience of a day depends on your expectations for that day. So your assessment of whether it was a good day or a bad day depends on how the events of the day meet your expectations. Two persons experiencing the same events on the same day will very likely have different reactions to those events, and hence judge the day as good or bad depending on their point of view.

That’s the first part. Then there’s also the fact that two persons could have wildly different experiences on the same day, so their memory of that day depends on their own personal experience. That’s all too common. Just because you had a good day, doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t have had a bad day. That only makes sense. But sometimes we forget that.

Sometimes, we’re thrilled about our day, and overlook that our friend may have just had a bad day. So maybe we become insensitive. And what if we were in their shoes? What if we had a bad day, and our friend had a great day, and they’re sharing their joy with us? Would we want them to stuff it? Would we resent them their good day? A good friend shouldn’t dampen their friend’s happiness, even if they can’t share in it.

So what if we’re sensitive to the other party’s feelings? What if we know that our friend had a bad day? Maybe we feel bad about having a good day. Maybe we feel a little guilt at being happy.

And maybe we can’t bring ourselves to being happy.

That is a bad good day.

The King of Pop has passed on

Just over two hours ago, Michael Jackson passed away apparently due to cardiac arrest. Heard it on CNN this morning as I was leaving the house, and Mix FM carried the news too. It’s gonna be tribute weekend, for sure.

So many memories linked to him and his music. Set aside the controversies surrounding him for a moment, and you’ll remember he was a good performer.

He practically pioneered the music video as mini-movie. The release of his Thriller video was an event of note. I even remember when the Bad music video was released.

He may have belonged to a particular era, especially when he couldn’t stage any meaningful comeback in the past decade. But his music will live on.

A’isyah’s first assessment

Two weeks ago Nany and I met up with A’isyah’s teacher, after receiving her first report card. I had been pleased with the report card, even though Nany was hoping for better performance from A’isyah. I still am pleased with her results. However, there’s more to your child’s progress than just their report card.

And that’s where the discussion with A’isyah’s teacher came in. Turns out that A’isyah’s a bit of a handful at school. Hehe. She can be rebellious, or stubborn, about doing as the teacher asks. She will sometimes come up with excuses for not responding to the teacher’s queries, or talks in class. She does like to talk, and seems to enjoy talking to her friends, even during lesson time. It doesn’t help that half the class will back her up and entertain her. Guess she’s the friendly type.

But this may become a problem. We don’t want her monopolizing the teacher’s time, and neither do we want A’isyah to be a distraction to the other students. We explained to her teacher that we don’t mind her being firm with A’isyah. We also explained that A’isyah has a tendency to not try something until she’s comfortable that she’ll succeed at it. She’s always been that way. Even when she started walking, she didn’t spend too much time practicing, falling down and so on. She waited until she was confident in herself, then got up and starting walking from one piece of furniture to another. Soon she was walking without aid.

So, yeah, A’isyah will wait until she knows that she can do something before trying to do it. And she is a willful little girl. Hehe. I just hope she turns around. We’re doing what we can at home, and I hope that she gets more positive examples from school as well.

Yeah, right, Bill Gates is gonna donate (part of) his fortune to me

Did you not know? You haven’t had any friends spread the wealth around to you? You mean, you haven’t gotten this email yet:

Dear Friends,

Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. [You won’t just regret it; you’ll repent for your sin of not grabbing a share of that huge pie!] Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. [Must be that damn Firefox competition that’s gotten Microsoft so scared. Kinda odd though, since Microsoft is a software company. What the heck is an “Internet” company anyway? Oh well. Nice of AOL to extend this e-mail beta test (e-mail’s still in beta?) to those outside the US.]

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period. [Good thing I’m not gonna forward this email from my Mac or Linux box. Hmm… do the Gmail servers run on Linux?]

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you send it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within 2 weeks!, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

Wow. Serious? I’m surprised Bill Gates isn’t bankrupt yet. It’s not that USD 245.00 per person you forward to, or even the USD 243.00 for each of those persons who also forwards it on. It’s the USD 241.00 that you’ll get for every third person who receives it that’s really gonna start putting a strain on his massive fortune.

Sigh.

So I got the above e-mail, and did the only responsible thing. I replied with this:

Wow. This is still going around?

<text from previous email on something similar>

Dear All,

Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m just trying to share some knowledge.

The message that was recently forwarded to you is an email hoax (try a Google search on “email hoaxes”). To make it a little simpler for you, check out the following two links:

Snopes entry on Microsoft and AOL email hoax

Entry at Truthorfiction.com

I’ve seen a version of this hoax before (and lots of other kinds too), so I know what to look out for. Besides, I also know enough about how the Internet works. Key feature: it’s decentralized. There is no central tracking system for email, so there’s no way for a private enterprise (even Microsoft) to track who you forward email to. It’s especially difficult to try to track forwarding of one specific email.

(Nod to victims of hackers/trojans/keyloggers/etc: Ok, so yes, the above is possible, but only if your PC has already been infected.)
(Nod to conspiracy theorists: Yes, of course the NSA has their supersecret supercomputers tracking all global communications, but no, it’s not being commissioned by Bill Gates for philanthropy. ;-) )
(Nod to MS bungling: Yes, Microsoft did once issue an automated update for their XP OS that secretly contact their servers with information on your machine, specifically your OS. They were doing that to check piracy. However, this was quickly found out by the security companies (heck, anyone with a decent firewall would have noticed it), and that update was retracted. No one wants their computer to secretly contact anyone, even the supplier of their OS. But that would be one way to track your emails...)

So, sorry, but you won’t be getting any nice big cheques from Bill Gates anytime soon.

</end text>

I’ll admit, this is the first time I’ve encountered this with testimonials in BM. It’s still false. It doesn’t work. It cannot work.

Interestingly, notice how the m.o. seems to change? They’re supposed to contact you for your address and then send you a cheque. And yet, some people mysteriously receive cheques from goodness-knows-where, and some have direct deposits to their bank accounts. Strange, and somewhat alarming…

Btw, to those who think, “what’s the harm in trying?”, forwarding junk emails actually has an impact. Bandwidth still isn’t free, even if it is “unlimited”. As always, there’s a cost involved.

So why am I replying to everyone? Because I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, people will learn to use readily available resources and educate themselves about this sort of thing. After all, a little bit of knowledge doesn’t hurt you, right?


Cheers!


Your Internet sleuth,

So there you have it. Hopes dashed. No cheque for thousands of dollars on your way. Please stop sharing Bill Gates’ wealth with me. Thank you very much.

Extra scenes in Terminator 2

A couple of nights ago I (re-)watched Terminator 2: Judgement Day with Azafia. It was part of her preparations to watch Terminator: Salvation, the fourth movie in the franchise. We’d caught the first movie on Astro a few nights previous, and since she had never watched the previous Terminator movies, except for parts of the third, she decided to watch the whole set in order. I had told her that it wasn’t really necessary for you to enjoy the latest Terminator movie, which I had just seen at the cinema. Still, having watched the previous movies gives you additional insights into the background story, and allowed you to catch all the references that have made their way into the pop-culture. Who doesn’t remember the phrase, “I’ll be back”, which is uttered in each of the Terminator movies?

Anyway, while watching Terminator 2, I noticed several scenes that I could not recall from my previous screenings of the movie. And I know that movie quite well, since it was one of the few movies we had on laserdisc back in the day. Now I guess this is a decade late, but I’ve just found out about it, so it’s new to me. Hehe. Turns out there was a Special Edition, with some additional scenes. I found synopses of the additional scenes, culled from a Terminator FAQ here.

The scenes added to characterization as well as story, and I finally know what Miles Dyson was holding over the detonator!

Feeling so alone

Sometimes all you need is someone to listen to you, and sympathize. Or at least, simulate sympathy. Sometimes, that’s not to be found. Because sometimes, you need to act. And that’s where I’m not performing. It still doesn’t do anything about feelings of loneliness. Of being pushed back into a corner. I swear I’m gonna crack one of these days.

A’isyah’s first report card

Another milestone! :-)

A’isyah received her first ever report card yesterday, from her pre-school, Tadika Al-Hidayah. The report comes in a nice big blue booklet, with sections covering topics such as Social Development, Islamic Personality, Art & Craft, Writing, and others. Some topics aren’t applicable for A’isyah, so they’re not filled in. The school marks the students’ performance in basic “units”, such as cooperation,, use of art materials, participation in physical activities, recognizing numbers, and so on. The grading scale goes from 1 to 4, being Very Good, Good, Average, and Needs Improvement.

<proud parent mode: on>

A’isyah’s overall performance was Good, with only a few areas marked Average. Her teacher’s comment was:

“Alhamdulillah she is an intelligent and confident girl. She enjoys learning and is good at maths.”

<proud parent mode: off>

Hehe. I’m not really that kiasu, but this is a good result in my books.

Tomorrow is the meeting with her teacher to discuss the report and A’isyah’s progress. That would make it my first parent-teacher meeting.

Idol 8: We have a winner!

Rousing opening number with the top 13? Check.
Plugging good social causes? Check.
Mock awards ceremony? Check.
Performances from popular artists and Idol also-rans? Check.
Big, surprise result? Check!

Wait, what?

Yes, to practically everyone’s surprise, it was a come-from-behind win for Kris. I can say with confidence that the judges must have been surprised when they found out, since they’d practically crowned Adam last week. Simon’s even made predictions about Adam weeks previous to that, culminating in last night’s pronouncement that the purpose of a show like American Idol was to discover talent like Adam.

Which begs the question: did Kris deserve the win? Was it just a case of underdog votes, and complacency on the side of Adam’s fans? Did the majority of Danny’s fans move over to Kris? Maybe America just didn’t like the “screaming”? Was there a (gasp!) homophobia element to the voting?

Just shy of 100 million votes for the final show. Let’s take a moment to absorb that number shall we? [Waits a moment.] Ok, moving on.

I think most people agree that Kris represented the dark-horse of the top three, and then the final two. There’s no denying Adam’s vocal skill, and he is quite a performer. The judges summarized it nicely last night though. Kris has grown tremendously over the period of the competition, and has revealed a confident ability to put an original spin to different types of songs. And throughout, he hasn’t strayed far from his soft-rock vocal sound. His popularity has been steadily increasing, coming from behind and quietly overtaking other popular choices.

Yes, he deserved the win. Congratulations to Kris Allen on winning the eighth season of American Idol!

And before we say good night, how ’bout some highlights from the finale (all with a grin – just different kinds): encore performance from Norman Gentle; Black Eyed Peas!; the new and “improved” Bikini Girl; Kara’s wardrobe malfunction; Danny Gokey and Lionel Ritchie!; the masterful stylings of Carlos Santana; Kris’ surprise and humility.

Ok. It was a good show. Good night! :-)

A(H1N1) flu arrived on Malaysian shores

Kinda ironic that after my first posting related to the A(H1N1) flu Malaysia reports its first confirmed case of the virus, quickly followed up with a second confirmed case. Both were students, returning to Malaysian shores from New York, arriving on Wednesday morning on a Malaysia Airlines flight. The second student took a second flight a few hours later, on Air Asia, up north to Penang. A few things of note about this story.

• Both cases were the result of primary infections from an international location, and not a spread of the virus through domestic infection. That’s somewhat reassuring.


• The Malaysia Airlines flight had a stopover in Stockholm, Sweden. Some passengers may have disembarked there. So have the Swedes been informed, and do they have any infections there now as a result?


• Both students from NY, who know each other, were infected. Is the situation in the Big Apple that bad? Or did they pick up the infection from a high-risk individual, maybe someone who had recently been to a hot-bed of H1N1 infections? Or is their school the source?


• How many persons from the original MAS flight have made secondary flights? That’s how the infection spreads, jumping from locale to locale. Hopefully they’ve already identified all the passengers, and the only ones traveling onwards were the ones going to Sarawak, and the one confirmed case in Penang.

This first week, until Wednesday, is probably the most high-risk time for a spread of the infection. It’s quite alarming to note that Japan now has 90+ confirmed cases of the virus, with the majority of those being domestic infections. From four persons bringing the virus from abroad, they’re now trying to contain a much larger outbreak centered on two prefectures.

Time to be careful. Wash your hands frequently. Carry one of those antibacterial handwash gels in the small bottles. By all means, wear a face mask (more especially if you feel you may be infected, cos at least you’re keeping from spreading it). And if you feel feverish or have any other symptoms of the flu get yourself checked out.

Dyson – a neat little game, by independent game designers

I discovered this gem of a title from a Malaysian gaming blog, which has a section for free games. Being a rather poor gamer (sob, sob), with old hardware (sob, sob), I’m always on the lookout for good, free options to quench my gaming thirst.

Dyson was developed by Alex May and Rudolf Kremers, and was entered in this year’s Independent Games Festival. The 26.4Mb installer is downloadable from www.Dyson-game.com. It doesn’t require much in terms of computing resources, and, although there’s some delay on loading the game, it runs fine on basic hardware even when there are hundreds of little units flying around.

The premise of the game is simple enough. It most closely resembles an RTS in gameplay mechanics. The game map is a mix of different-sized asteroids, each with different levels in three attributes. Your units are “seeds” that fly around, orbiting asteroids or flying from one to another. But you don’t directly control the seeds. You can only give them instructions to fly from one asteroid to another within range, or to plant trees (two types: unit producing, or defensive) to colonize asteroids. The seeds behave according to pre-set mechanics, and have the attributes of their originating asteroids.

The minimalist design, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetics, is very pleasing and engaging. There are currently only 6 levels, and no multiplayer (not even planned), but it still promises a challenging experience. The developers promise that they still have further plans for the game, expanding the possibilities and improving on the AI. Even as it is, though, it still offers up a fun gaming experience, and I’m sure even after you complete the game you can still come back to Dyson for an occasional rush. After all, watching hundreds of seeds asteroid-hopping and crushing all resistance is fun!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to figure out how to beat level 5. You can check out a review of Dyson here.

Idol 8: To the home stretch!

Wow. So Paula was only half right. Was this a shocker? Hmm. I’ve already blogged that I felt Kris has been getting stronger and stronger as the weeks went by. So, even though I’m a big fan of Danny, I’m gonna say that I’m still pleased with this result. There was no escaping Adam making it to the final, what with all the love he’s been getting from the judges week after week. Heck, even Katy Perry had his name stenciled on her cape (what’s with that?).

Kris is a good singer, and he’s quite versatile. What I like most about him is his ability to interpret a song, and put a new spin on it. He’s done that time and time again. I think that’s what he’s being rewarded for. There’s no doubt that Danny’s got skill. His final performance on Idol showed us the range of his ability. And I’m sure there’s a future in the business for him, so it’s not the end of the road. Not by a longshot.

Could Kris mount a challenge to Adam? Interesting that he was the first one saved.

We’re finally at the home stretch! (So, Lin, you gonna vote for Kris next week?)

Preventing the spread of H1N1

Do you call it swine flu? That’s apparently a misnomer, since Influenza A (H1N1) is actually a combination of swine flu, bird flu, and human flu. What about Mexican/North American flu? Or is that too discriminatory? In Malaysia, people are referring to it by its full name or shortened to H1N1, so I’ll go with that.

Now, even though H1N1 isn’t headlining the news the way it did a few weeks ago, we’re still getting updates on the progress of this flu epidemic (pandemic yet?). Confirmed cases are cropping up in more and more countries around the world as the virus spreads from human host to human host. (No, you can’t get it from eating pork. I wonder if that silly fear has died away yet.)

When the virus first grabbed the world’s attention in a big way, one of the first things a lot of people did was don face masks. It was a common sight in Asia a few years back during the SARS scare, and lots of people fell back on a “tried and tested” control mechanism. But does it really help?

Slate’s Explainer examined whether surgical masks are effective at protecting against the flu virus. Quick take-away: The masks can’t filter out the viruses, since the viruses are too small. (Although, the masks would still filter larger carrier molecules, so there could be some benefit.)

So what’s the best advice? Well, it turns out that the best advice is both simple and harder to carry out. Harder, because it’s not as simple as slipping on a face mask, even though it is a simple enough thing to do: wash your hands frequently.

Sounds easy enough, right? Hold on! Did you know there’s a method to it? Yup, there’s the right way to wash your hands, and then there’s the “quick n easy” method. You know what I’m talking about. Turn on the tap, rinse your hands for a couple of secs, turn off the tap, wring your hands out.

So here’s the lowdown on how to wash your hands properly, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. And if you need to get through to kids, try sending the teens here.

So if you see me humming Happy Birthday to myself, I’m probably washing my hands at the sink.