Kacang is Nuts!

A career photographer came by the office today, and surprisingly enough, he was here to give us a talk about doing sales. He talked while showing us his pictures and explaining how he took those pictures. Well, it seems professional photography is not too different from sales. After all, a photographer needs to talk to people to persuade them to have their photos taken just so.

One of the things he mentioned was that there was no need to be afraid of getting to know people. After all, they get out of bed in the morning like everyone else, and put on their pants one leg after another, which is of course, just like everyone else.

Hmm… sounds like some wisdom I could use. Hi to all you folks out there who put on your pants one leg after another.

Just found out that we had our faces plastered on the Education section of the Star newspapers today.

Read all about it at here.

It’s sure not home when cars drive on the “wrong side” of the road and the staple food is meat and bread. Yeap, this is my first post from the US of A and it’s been an exciting time here.

They say getting there is half the adventure, and you’d better believe it! The journey over from KL really started off on the wrong foot when the MAS flight we were taking got delayed by engine problems.

Waiting at KLIA for the plane to be fixed

We finally got off the ground, about 4 hours late. A Brit on the same flight was royally pissed. He was delayed on the flight over to Malaysia too, and he was adamant that he’d never take MAS again if he could.

The flight over to England can only be described as long. We had economy class seats, the food was really blah. However, there were personal entertainment systems for all the passengers, and I ended up watching reruns of House and CSI.

We transited in London Heathrow Airport. Our connecting American Airlines flight was overbooked, and surprise surprise! I got upgraded to Business class together with a colleague.

Business class seat on AA. Can’t really tell, but you can really stretch out or lie down.

Not that I’m complaining of course. Hell, business class is THE WAY to travel! The seat’s so nice, you can recline it all the way like a bed to sleep. The air stewardesses actually treat people in a civilized manner, and the food. Wow. You have got to see it to believe it.

Apple juice and really fresh roasted nuts

Salmon something-or-the-other which really tastes great.

Turkey sandwich with salad.

Everyone on business class was given a Bose noise cancellation head phones which totally cut off the scream of the engines to a quiet hum. They’re wicked!

I can’t hear you. I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

The flight was really wonderful. However, on approach, Raleigh looked a bit desolate from the air, not at all what I was expecting. No major city blocks or urban sprawls, just flat land and clumps of development.

Raleigh Durham area from the air.

We got a pick up from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, arrived at Courtney Estates, our home for the next one year.

First view of Courtney Estates residence.

No, I’m not dead (This phrase has been used to death around here. Maybe I should use it as my blog tagline. You know, “Kacang is Nuts!: No, I’m not dead!”). Well, I’ve been busy (Bet you’ve heard that one, too). No, really.

It’s all a long story, a little of which I mentioned in passing here. So, what really happened was that… I got a job at my dream company! WOOHOO! *dances, jiggles, cheers*

OK, alright, not ‘jakun’ or anything but I’m very excited to get a job with Cisco Systems. If you’ve not heard of the name, it’s the top network technology provider worldwide. Every time you use the Internet, you can be sure that somewhere along the line, a Cisco switch or router is humming quietly and sending your data along up and down the line. These days, Cisco equipment is pretty much the glue which holds much of the Internet together.

Anyway, I’ll be joining Cisco through its Associate Systems Engineer (ASE) program. This program will bring me to Cisco’s Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina for a one year training stint starting in July 2008. Together with three other ASEs (no, not ASSES!), we’ll be trained in Cisco’s own networking technology, technical sales as well as effective communicating. By the end of the one year, we are expected to have achieved both the Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) and Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP) certifications.

Expect more about this in future, but one thing’s for sure: It’s gonna be a heck of an awesome experience!

Hello world! Sorry for the long absence, I’ve been really busy tying up some lose ends for my masters research. Why the rush now? ‘Cuz I got a new job, that’s why! More on this later on when the offer has been finalized. For now though, I can say that it’s going to be a really swell job with a really swell company, and getting it is sort of akin to striking lottery. Stay tuned for more!

Another reason for being uber busy these last few weeks is that I’ve been attending the Toastmasters Club at my university as well as at Mid Valley. Briefly, Toastmasters International is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people improve their communication and leadership skills. For most part, the organization focuses on helping individuals overcome their fear of speaking in front of a crowd, while improving the delivery of their speeches. After all, being able to communicate effectively these days is a must for anyone and everyone in the workforce. Personally, I’m hoping train myself to be more confident when I’m communicating with people for my future job. Just like Obama! For more information, do go to the Toastmasters International’s “What is Toastmasters?” page.

Anyway, having signed up as a member about three weeks back, I finally received my Toastmasters New Member Kit today. Many thanks to Joy Lee of the university’s Toastmasters Club for helping me with the registration earlier. The kit shouldn’t have taken so long to arrive, but the fault was mine as I had registered using my JB address. The package took a circuitous route to JB before reaching me in PJ, safe and sound, via Poslaju (courtesy of my mom).

Inside the package is the New Member Kit. Oh, and that’s DD, my girlfriend’s soft toy dog which was lying around when I took the pics.

The kit contains a few manuals, namely:

• Competent Leadership
• Competent Communication
• Your Speaking Voice
• Gestures: Your Body Speaks
• Effective Evaluation

Join me, anyone?

I received this SMS message this week from a medical officer at the University of Malaya Medical Center (UMMC) a few days back:

Hi dear donor! This is medical officer from university hospital ppum. We are very short of o and A.Pls come n donate at blood bank ppum uh. Mon to fri 8am to 5pm. Sat 8am to 12.30pm. Enquiry pls call 0379492706 reception. Tq very much for ur help.

I found out today that this message was sent by Dr. Maung from the Department of Medical Transfusion. The nurse who chatted with me while I was waiting for my blood to be collected told me that the SMS campaign successfully increased the number of donors by up to 100% on some days. However, blood reserves for blood types A and O are still insufficient, and more donors are still needed at this time.

If you are healthy and in reasonably good shape, please do consider giving some blood to the blood bank. The stored blood is usually used for accident or emergency cases where loss of blood has occurred, as well as in some major operations.

For first timers, you may be interested to read my post on blood donation(with pics!) from earlier on. Additional information can be obtained from the UMMC Blood Donation page. It’s generally quite a painless and safe process. And to top it off? You may just be saving someone’s life.

KacangIsNuts: Hello Kak, boleh tolong check kejap… Dulu saya tulis surat mintak extension dah lulus ke tak?

Clerk: Kejap, saya check…

*Clerk walks of and shuffles through several files, then disappears into somebody’s office to shuffle through more files, and returns.*

Clerk: Belum lagi la… Masih kat inbox lagi…

KacangIsNuts: *WTF look* Inbox??? Dah hantar satu bulan! Apasal kat inbox lagi???

Clerk: Person in charge belum check.

KacangIsNuts: *Super WTF look* Tapi dah satu bulan??

Clerk: Dia tak nak check, saya pun tak boleh nak buat ape la…

KacangIsNuts: *Super Ultra WTF look* So biler akan approve ni?

Clerk: Tak tau…

KacangIsNuts: *Faints*

Government agencies: Any slower and they’d be going in reverse…

Daphne was writing about her experience of blood donation about a week back, which reminded me that I hadn’t actually gone to donate blood for some time. Here’s a post of my experience when I popped by the UM Medical Center for blood donation 2 days ago.

At the blood donation center, the first thing I needed to do was to fill in a form with my personal details. On the form were a few questions to determine whether or not I fulfilled the criteria for blood donation. The criteria, as taken from the UMMC website for blood donation, is as follows:

• You are in good health today
• You are between 18 to 60 years of age
• Your weight is above 45 kg
• You had more than 5 hours of sleep
• You are free from any medical problems: e.g. high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, operation < 6 months etc
• You have not taken any antibiotics in the last one week
• You are not pregnant or just delivered
• You have taken breakfast or light lunch before donating blood
• You are not involved in any of the following activities:
  • Homosexual relationship
  • Bisexual relationship
  • Multiple sexual partners
  • Having sexual contact with those mentioned above
  • Drug abuse
• Interval between your last donation is more than 3 months

The next step was to get my blood pressure checked by a good doctor who declined to have his picture taken…

… just to make sure there was enough blood left for donation. No sense donating blood and then needing to have it dripped back into me again when I faint.

That done, a medical orderly quickly draws a blood sample for the hemoglobin concentration test and to determine my blood type…

… hemoglobin levels ok, and blood type O. O type is good, as it can be received by people of all blood types.

The nurse points me to one of the reclining chairs and puts a cuff around my upper arm. Here’s the vein from which she will draw the blood from…

… where she gives me a quick injection of local anesthetic to numb any pain from the blood collection process…

… This really doesn’t hurt. The needle was so tiny that I could hardly feel the prick. Heck, I was taking photos with my camera phone at the same time.

The donation proper starts after that, when the cannula (term from Wikipedia) is inserted into the vein…

… and in …

… and that’s as far as it goes.

The needle and tubes are secured so nothing goes flopping around when the nurse is not looking…

… while the blood is fed into a little bag on the side…

… where the machine measures the quantity of blood collected and starts beeping when it reaches approximately 450ml, the standard donation amount.

At the end of the donation, the cannula is removed and a gauze is given to me to stop the blood flow. Apparently, quite some pressure has to be applied to stem the flow of blood and prevent bleeding under the skin, which could result in a rather painful bruise. At the same time, the nurse told me to rest for a few moments for the body to adjust to the slight loss of blood.

Refreshments (read food and drinks) are always provided for all blood donors to replenish the lost blood volume and blood sugar. When I felt fine enough to leave, I grabbed some sandwiches and a cup of Milo on the way out.

The administrative officer then asked for my parking ticket and stamped it for free parking. A blood donor’s special privilege.

Well, that was that. I could try to make it sound like more, but the fact is that there is really nothing more to donating blood. It is simply not as scary as people think it is, with little side effects, if at all. There is almost no pain involved, and it is a good way of helping those in need. Try it out, every little bit counts, and you could save a life today.