This auntie blogs too

A huge shot, that is.  Check out the BIERSTICK!

And here’s how to crazy use it:

Step 1:  Remove mouthpiece and fill bierstick with beer, or other beverage.

Step 2:  Put mouthpiece back on and push air out of tube.

Step 3:  While holding mouthpiece firmly with one hand, place end-cap against wall or other stationary surface and press to drink when ready.

See how the Biergirls do it.

Hic! 

And oh!  Remember, Drink, Don’t Drive!

Following my post on What do you say, I’m now thinking of what I should do.

My friend’s son was recently diagnosed with muscular dystrophy (MD).  My heart missed a beat when I saw the SMS from another friend who heard the news first.  Since then, this has been on my mind, day and night.  I can’t imagine how he and his family are feeling now. 

His son is only ten years old.  And MD is a genetic ailment that is incurable.  A quick search on the internet showed some research for a cure using stem cells, but a cure is definitely not on the way.

Now, what can I do to help my friend in this hopeless situation?  Will he accept any help?  I know lots of people shun offers of help for various reasons:

• do not want to trouble outsiders
• do not want to open up their lives for others to see
• believe they can handle the situation themselves
• think the offer may not be sincere
• big ego, does not like being helped

I’ve not offered any help yet as I’m not sure what I can do.  So far, I have done some quick reading and ordered two books as a gift for him from Amazon.   This is the only tiny step that I’ve taken.

I know I can say lots of things to console and encourage him, but in a situation that is hopeless, just how much can I say without sounding contrived?  I’m also afraid of stressing him out as lots of people will be saying the same things.  Urgh!  This is not easy at all.

What can I do (besides talking)?  Raise money (will he accept)?  Pray (I’ve been doing)?  Research for MD resources (I’m a good researcher)?

What?! 

** Update:  I am looking for blogs that chronicle the lives of MD (particularly Duchenne MD) sufferers.  If you know of any, please point me to them.   Thanks!

Since I’m not in the best of moods, I thought I would indulge on some online retail therapy to lift my spirits a little.  I stumbled upon some Geek Tech stuff that I thought would be good to have, geek or not.

There are spas for every part of your body.  Check out this head spa:

Alleviate stress and tension, relieve migraine pain, increase blood circulation, and enter a mode of relaxation with this revolutionary head massager.

Imagine wearing this on your morning commute and assuming ‘The Thinker’ pose as shown by the model.  Hilarious stuff!

Or wear this at your office desk and scare the hell out of your boss – it’s his fault for giving you too much work.

This gadget reminds me of the head gear that gladiators wore?  Maybe the Romans were already having their heads in spas as they fought?

Or what about having a Temperature controlled faucet light?  

The light changes to red when the water is hot and blue when the water is cool.  It’s the perfect thing to scare first time guests at your house, especially on a dark and stormy night.  It’ll be great if they had the shower version too.

I would definitely have gotten the next gadget if I were still working for that terrible former boss of mine.  Maybe I can convince my ex-colleagues who are still slogging there to get one?

It’s the USB Missile Launcher.  Use your PC to aim and fire!  It’s a pity the missiles are only made of foam, though.  It’ll be a blast if every one in the office got one and use it to fight boredom, besides shooting at the evil bosses.

And if you aspire to be a spy or a detective or the like, go check these out:

1. Camera detector - Quickly, easily, and discreetly conduct sweeps of your home, office, or hotel room to locate hidden wireless cameras.  Check this out too!
2. Bug Detector - Simply point the detector at walls, ceilings, or any surface you suspect may be bugged.
3. Lie detector - utilizes voice tension technology to measure varying degrees of vibration in the voice. These vibrations are caused by the user going from a state of calm, to being a little nervous as you would when you lie.
4. Super Ear Mini Amplifier - Because you can hear sounds 100 feet away, you can even use this for your spy missions to overhear distant conversations.
5. Wireless Color Spy Camera - This wireless pinhole video spy camera can be placed almost anywhere and will transmit live color video and audio to any TV or VCR in your home!

The Ergodex R DX1 TM, a customizable keyboard.  It would be perfect if it’s wireless.

I’m in a pensive mood now, having received news about a friend’s young son being diagnosed with a debilitating disease.  This is the type of news that nobody wants to hear.  I can’t imagine how my friend and his family are feeling now.

Some people are good at consoling and reassuring or even motivating people in times like this.  I’m just not one of them.  Somehow I feel that anything I say will come out sounding contrived.  But I know I have to say/do something.

What do you say when to your friend when his/her:

• close relative is diagnosed with a terminal disease or serious chronic condition?
• close relative dies?

Or worse, if your friend is diagnosed with a terminal illness?

I’m really not good at this at all!  I’m just good at getting all emotional and crying for/with them…

Sniff!

I’m rooting for Turkey to win Euro 2008.  I’m an underdog type of person.  And the Turks have been proving themselves over the past few matches.  I’m kind of worried about their next match, though, as they have injured and suspended players to contend with.  But their never-say-die attitude may just help them get through to the finals.  加油！

Big Guy hopes that Spain will be able to do good this time.  They had not been doing well on the international scene even though they have many good players.  Big Guy actually supports England – I think he suffers from some kind of misplaced post-colonial loyalty (if you can call it that).  But England did not make the cut, so he has to root for another team now.

Erm… actually, I have not watched a single match (what with the unearthly hours).  But Big Guy gives the greatest commentaries whether I want to listen or not (most of the time I didn’t!) and I do read the reports and watch some highlights.

I’m seriously comtemplating watching the Spain vs Italy match.  I mean – all those hot, sweaty, dark-haired hunks!  I could lose a couple hours of sleep for them, every few years, you know.  Hmm… maybe…

And in other football news, David Beckham gets his, erm, lunchbox scrutinized!  Read it here!

I received a comment from Scot (from US, I assume) on my post on cutting frills and waste and he pointed me to this website ‘that details the impact that fast food paper packaging has on forests’.  The Dogwood Alliance is passionate about saving the forests in Southern US and fast food packaging is the main culprit in ravaging the forests. 

As detailed in the website,

Americans go through 15 billion — yes “B,” billion — disposable hot beverage cups per year. And market projections are to reach 23 billion disposable cups per year by the year 2010! Starbucks alone uses in excess of 1.7 billion paper cups per year. Recently Starbucks shifted away from all virgin fiber to a 10 percent recycled post-consumer cup. That small step forward saves about 11,000 tons of wood and 47 million gallons of wastewater annually.

And,

Our fast food lifestyle is literally burying us in an avalanche of excessive packaging and waste. Every year millions of pounds of food packaging waste litter our roadways, clog our landfills and spoil our quality of life. But more than litter, today’s fast food packaging is destroying our Sothern Forests.

• The average American eats fast food more that 150 times per year.
• The disposal of all that packaging in landfills ultimately results in the release of millions of pounds of greenhouse gases as the paper rots.
• Too much of this packaging is not recycled or otherwise disposed of properly.
• With its grab-and-go, overly packaged food stuff are unnecessary
• condiments, fast food outlets are our country’s primary source of urban litter.

This is only in America, what about the rest of the world?!

Shouldn’t each one of us be doing somethin’?

Just take a look at this sport plane (no, it’s not a toy!)!

It’s the ICON A5 from ICON Aircraft and can go on land, sea and air.  See more pics here.  Super cool, right?!

And play around with it here.  Super cool right?!

Ok, ok, I’m gonna have to stop saying that.

Read more about it at this site.  It costs about USD139,000.  Not too pricey isn’t it?  You can even order it online!

I’m so gonna order one now!

But wait!  I don’t have a pilot’s licence and would the stuffy government authorities allow this?  ERP and COE takings will drop?  Or by the time they allow this, I’ll already be a great-grandma?  And it’ll already be model ICON A500?

Hmm… I think I can be very happy with a remote-control toy version of the same thing.  I will be the envy of all when I take it to the park.  Super cool, right?!

And hands off, Little Guy!

Even without the Saving Gaia initiative going on, everyone should pitch in to do their bit for Mother Earth.  Cut the frills, cut waste!

Fast food restaurants have made some progress in cutting waste by doing away with packets of chilli and tomato sauces.  They now have dispensers for them instead.  But I feel much more can be done in these restaurants.

When we eat-in, why do they need to:

• put a cover on the drinks?
• put burgers in paper boxes or wrap them in waxed paper?

Yes, the staff needs to handle the food, but I believe a change in the process can help save costs and cut waste.  Put the food on trays or plates made of recycled paper.  The staff taking orders should do just that, with the task of handling of food done by another staff.

If we can eat food served on plates in hawker centres and food courts, why not in fast food restaurants?  What’s with all the wrapping and packaging (e.g. for fries) even when we are eating in?  And why do we need to use straws?  And how much water is wasted in all those ice that remain in the cup after we finish our cold drinks (imagine the many cups they sell each day and collecting all the ice that were left behind)?

So, the next time you dine at a fast food restaurant, tell them not to cover your drinks, go easy on the ice and skip the straws, ok?

Young kids like Little Guy are very ‘literal’ – they interpret words as they are, don’t understand sarcasms or insinuations, and much less, rhetorical questions.

Take for instance this episode that occurred last Sunday evening.  Big Guy was munching on some fish crackers.

Little Guy:  Mummy, can I have some fish crackers?

Me:       No, you just finished eating a piece of Twiggies.

If you eat fish crackers now, how are you going to

eat your dinner later, huh?

Little Guy:  With my mouth.

If only ‘duh!’ was in his vocabulary and if only he knew how to roll his eyes!  He must think that Mum must be very dim to ask such a ‘duh!’ question.

Another incident happened last year, a month before he turned three years old.  Little Guy sometimes wakes up crying in the night because of bad dreams.  He still does that occasionally.  When that happens, he will always ask to sleep with Big Guy and me for the rest of the night.

Well, on this occasion, I comforted him by carrying him in my arms.  When he had quietened down and before he could point in the direction of my bedroom, I asked him,

Do you want Mummy to sleep with you?

To my surprise, with his eyes closed and head on my chest, he shook his head.  I thought that was strange, and so decided to ask again, this time, slightly differently,

Do you want to sleep with Mummy?

This time, he nodded.  So I consolidated the two questions,

You don’t want Mummy to sleep with you but you want to sleep with Mummy?

He nodded again. 

So it was clear now – to him, the first question referred to me sleeping with him in his room, while the second meant that he sleeps with me in my room.

It was a lesson on the importance of communicating correctly (at least to ‘literal-minded’ people).  We have to be mindful of the words we use and how we use them (word order, emphasis, etc).

I’m always reminded about this incident when I pass by this restaurant whose signboard reads:

San Katong Laksa Steamboat Seafood Restaurant 

How did the owner decide on the order of the three words Laksa, Steamboat and Seafood?  If you switch them around, will the meaning be different?  Will it affect your decision in dining there?

Bringing up Little Guy has sure opened my eyes and mind to many things that I’ve taken for granted.  Sometimes, it’s a humbling experience.

I don’t look forward to the day when he’ll learn to say ‘duh!’ and roll his eyes at the same time!

Cheers! 

Hic!