Search words

I have this nifty gadget called Feedjit that you can see at the bottom right corner of my blog. Which basically feeds me with some very minimal data about the blog visitors.

Of course, to get better functions, you would need to upgrade from Basic to Pro (as in Feedjit Pro I think). By doing so you do not only get to know the identity and country of origin of each and every one of your blog visitor, you also would get first-hand and classified information on everybody's personal detail, including favorite fruit and underwear color. Yup, you heard it. You! Yeah you! The one reading this now. Hmmm...let me see...leopard print in shades of fuscia and teal. Ooh how very growling animal.

But of course you will then scroll down and see that I still haven't upgraded (being the real cheapo that I am) and thus all that was written in the paragraph above beginning from "you would also..." to "...how very freakin' growlin' animal." was totally pure crap.

But rapidly moving on. Feedjit also tells you how the visitors arrive at your blog. Some were blog surfing, some clicked on networkedblogs, some arrived by way of search words. So here is a short list of search words that have made it on my Feedjit. Somehow they were got linked to Papillon Putih after searching for these words or phrases.

1. makna donkey masa kecil dalam bahasa english
2. nurse vacancy kat rumah orang tua 2012
3. bahayakah urat yang disuntik
4. penutup tangki minyak kereta myvi
5. telur berbulu (HUH?)
6. mata putih berurat merah
7. suka cewek ketiak masam (WTH?)

I'm not surprised that "suka cewek ketiak masam" got my blog tagged. I'm surprised that ADA cowok yang suka cewek ketiak masam.

Lists. I just love lists.

Teringat

1. Gam dalam tub plastik kecik yang ada sudu empat segi melekat kat atas penutup dia.
2. Kaset audio yang boleh guna pensel bersegi untuk rewind.
3. TV berpintu dan berkaki.
4. Lawan badge sekolah.
5. Main zero point.
6. Bunyi "ketek!" bila pusing tombol untuk tukar channel TV.
7. Cuba balance ON/OFF kat suis bulat berpunat yang tolak ke atas/bawah bila nak pasang lampu.
8. Beg keras motif kotak-kotak yang boleh buat tempat duduk sementara tunggu van sekolah.
9. Susu coklat Magnolia dalam botol kaca.
10. Baju bare-back.

Kekeliruan semantik

The other day in class we were discussing a little about jobs and occupations. I gave them a simple word puzzle in which they had to find words that describe someone's work. At first they had to guess the meaning of them. Some were easy, like étudiant or professeur or architecte. Some did not sound anything remotely like English, like cadre or douanier.

Then one of the students raised his hand and asked, "Madame, what mean chanteur?" (itu adalah soalan standard para pelajar saya bagi terjemahan terus "apa makna..." ke dalam Bahasa Inggeris). I told them that chanteur meant singer, then added, "When I say singer I'm talking about the recording artist and not the one you see at the zoo." Yang faham gelak. Yang tak faham memandang kosong. Yang kemengantukan berpuasa buat-buat macam faham tapi meneruskan tidur dengan mata terbuka. One student started singing the Singer jingle. You know..."Singer...menawan keluarga bahagia!". Gelak-gelak lagi.

Tak apalah. Saya pun meneruskan kelas. Tapi 5 minit selepas itu saya tengok keadaan semaking meruncing. Makin ramai yang mengantuk. You know it when you see the eyes start to roll upwards and the eyelid shutter speed mula menjangkau 1/500 sec with faster flash sync interval (cuba bayangkan). So I asked them to all stand up. Siapa dapat jawab boleh duduk.

At one point I asked the meaning of chanteur. One boy excited put up his hand. "I, Madame!" (read: "Saya cikgu!" dalam Bahasa Melayu). Dan dengan penuh keyakinan dia menjerit, "Chanteur is sewing machine!"

Visit to Rumah Orang Tua Al-Ikhlas

Last Sunday (29/07/12) I had the wonderful opportunity to join a group of friends to visit the Rumah Jagaan Orang Tua Al-Ikhlas in Puchong and meet an extraordinary woman who calls herself Kak Muji who has decided to devote her time and use up her pension money to open a home and take care of the sick and elderly.

We did some collection (food contribution and cash donation) and pooled in our resources. My car boot was full of groceries and adult diapers generously given by my work colleagues. And the cash donation collected was enough to buy an industrial washing machine and pay for other needs deemed fit by Kak Muji. Orang UniKL MFI memang sempoi. Sentiasa bersedia untuk membantu. And to all my friends who contributed cayalah guys! You all were super awesome. Merci beaucoup!

Background story on the lady owner of the home:

Kak Muji is the lady who is running this home.

She is a retired head nurse. A single mother with three grown-up daughters and many happy grandchildren.

There are two main reasons why she decided to run this home for the elderly: 

1) There were no old folks home for Muslims only at that time.

2) Her expertise and skill as a nurse would come in very useful for geriatric care.

(Kak Muji is the one on the right, seen here holding one of her granddaughters. The tall lamp post you see on the left is, well, me.)

The building:

She was given access to an old  mosque which was no longer in use due to its very poor condition. Using her own financial resources, she rebuilt and restored it by putting new tiles and plaster ceiling. She also repaired the roof. Bit y bit, she extended the mosque area by adding a few wings, to have separate sections for the men and women and a bigger space for both the cooking area and the porch. All this at her own expenses, of course.

This is the first all Muslim care center for the elderly.

Residents:

There are currently 55 residents; 20 men and 35 women. They are patients sent in by hospitals all over the country as they had nobody to take care of them upon leaving the ward. Most of them are bed-ridden. She says she  only takes in chronic patients, as her experience working in a hospital would be beneficial to these elderly people. Sometimes the patients sent in to her home were so ill or were still in a coma and they pass away within 2-3 days of arrival. I find it emotionally hard to witness these elderly people all put up in a home, especially the women. Each one has a different story to tell. Some have no family, some became old and forgotten, some are so-called paying for their past sins. I hope and I pray that God blesses our souls with more empathy and compassion towards our parents, for that is what is sorely needed and lacking. Nobody should grow old alone. And lonely.

Kak Muji is assisted by 13 helpers. Each one is trained for a specific skill, such as cooking, cleaning, feeding or basic nursing.

Monthly expenses:

The cost to run this house is around RM30k per month. Most of the expenses would go to food, diapers, medication and salary. They go through 10 kg of rice and 15 packs of adult diapers per day. So any contribution of adult diapers and basic food supplies would be most welcome, as well as cash donations or maybe corporate sponsorships to take care of the utility bills.

We hope to make our visit here a regular one and help spread a bit of cheer to the elderly who only want to spend the last days of their lives knowing that there are still some people out there who care.

Sesi berkenalan di dalam kelas

This morning I had class with this particular group of 8 students for the first time. All boys. So, as usual, we first had to introduce ourselves (en français, bien sûr) and then introduce another friend. In order to do so, I first asked each one to take out a sheet of A4 paper and told them to draw themselves. At the beginning they were a bit reluctant, asking again and again what they really had to do. I don't know why but somehow all my students would gladly draw another friend but refuse to do a self-portrait. So finally I explained to them that I just wanted a simple sketch of how they see themselves, if they cannot remember how they look like. Then they went Ohhh and started work.

After 5 minutes, I collected their work to be randomly redistributed. From the 8 drawings, I had one rock star, one Doraemon, one Mat Salleh superhero (sebab pakai spender kat luar), two local superheros (sorang pakai kupiah, sorang lagi pakai cape batik), seorang gadis bertudung yang buat pose muncung, one K-Pop boy and finally one normal budak lelaki Melayu yang pakai jeket MFI.

Blood test

This morning I went to the clinic for a blood test. In the doctor's office, she was trying to look for a vein visible enough for her to poke the needle in. While doing so she kept asking me if I could stand the sight of blood. If not it would be better for me to lie down during the procedure instead of me sitting on a chair and risking passing out and roll off the chair out off the room.

Dia ikat lengan saya dengan tali velcro. Dia jentik-jentik mencari urat yang timbul.Dia suruh saya genggam-genggam tangan macam main cap-cekur-gam-gamit masa kecik-kecik dulu. Tapi masih tak jumpa tempat sesuai untuk disuntik. Sambil mencari dia berbual kosong dengan saya supaya saya tidak panik.

-Hmmm I can't seem to find any vein.

-Ohh. Doctor does that mean I have good smooth skin?

-It means your veins are deep down. Sebab awak ada banyak isi.

-Ohhhh.

She tried on both forearms but still couldn't find a good vein. Doktor saya geleng-geleng kepala. Muka dia sangat masam. Saya macam ada sedikit cuak.

-So doctor if we cannot find a vein how??

-Hmmm....well looks like we might have to cut off an arm then.

HAH! Deep down I knew she was just cracking a joke but she looked so serious that I couldn't help but feel very worried. Not to mention start to imagine the worst.

She saw my muka pucat and terus exclaim "Hah quick quick fist pump fist pump!"

I did as was told. She found a bulging vein. Blood extracted. End of story.

Logik ke bila muka pucat darah semua ke tangan? Entahlah tapi semasa hendak keluar dari ofis doktor saya terdengar gelak "hahahawasudakenakandiabeb" nya. Haih. Takpa lah janji misi tercapai!

Amazing animal facts

• A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
• A bee must visit 4,000 flowers in order to make one tablespoon of honey.
• Humpback whales create the loudest sound of any living creature.
• Bald eagles may use the same nest year after year, adding more twigs and branches each time. One nest was found that had been used for 34 years and weighed over two tons.
• Great White Sharks can go as long as three months without eating.
• A bee can see the colors green, blue and ultra-violet - but red looks like black.
• A giant squid’s eyes have a diameter of 15 inches which are the largest of any animal.
• A zebra is white with black stripes.
• Mayflies live for a year or more as larvae; but as adults they live for only a few hours.
• Bats always turn left when leaving a cave.
• 3 out of 10 Dalmation dogs suffer from hearing loss due to inbreeding.
• Hummingbirds are the only animal that can also fly backwards.
• Polar bears are the only mammal with hair on the soles of its feet.
• The African Elephant has a gestation period of 22 months while a short-nosed bandicoot gestates for 12 days.
• The cockroach is the fastest animal on 6 legs  covering a meter a second.
• The mortality rate if bitten by a Black Mambo snake is over 95%.
• Ticks are second only to the mosquito as the most dangerous parasites to humans.
• According to one study, plant and animal species are becoming extinct at the rate of 17 per hour.
• The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot.
• A dog’s sense of smell is 1,000 times stronger than humans.
• Killer Whales (Orcas) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
• Bald eagles can actually swim! They use an overhand movement of the wings that is very much like the butterfly stroke.
• Hummingbird’s consume half of their weight in food daily.
• A hippopotamus can run faster than a man.
• A large swarm of locusts can eat 80,000 tons of corn in a day.
• Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.
• Female fleas consume fifteen times their weight daily.
• A cockroach can survive for about a week without its head before dying of starvation.
• When a dolphin is sick or injured, its cries of distress summon immediate aid from other dolphins, who try to support it to the surface so that it can breathe.
• The whale shark has over 4,000 teeth. Each tooth is only 3mm long.
• A rhinoceros beetle can support up to 850 times its own weight on it's back. That would be the equivalent of a man carrying 76 family-sized cars around on his back.
• Mosquitoes have been found to prefer biting people with smelly feet.
• A dragonfly can spot an insect moving 33 feet away.
• Certain Chinese and American alligators can survive the winter by freezing their heads in ice, leaving their nose out to breath for months on end.
• Polar Bears are capable of jumping as high as 6 feet and can run as fast as 25mph.
• Sea Otters use so much energy that they need to eat as much as one-third of their weight each day.
• The ‘crosshairs’ of gun sights were made of spider web filaments until the 1960’s.
• The sailfish, the swordfish and the mako shark have all been clocked at swimming over 50mph.
• Mosquitos are attracted most to the color blue.
• The male penguin incubates the single egg laid by his mate. During the two month period he does not eat, and will lose up to 40% of his body weight.
• Honeybees have hair on their eyes.
• The heart of a shrimp is located in its head.
• Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.
• An adult lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away, and warns off intruders or reunites scattered members of the pride.
• The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
• Some frogs are able to be frozen and then thawed, and continue living.
• A group of herring is called a seige.
• A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.
• Cats prefer to eat their food at 86º F, which is why they don't immediately gulp down the half-eaten can of food from the refrigerator.
• A goldfish is the only animal that can see infrared and ultraviolet light.
• One in 5,000 North Atlantic lobsters are born bright blue.
• A snail can sleep for 3 years.
• A group of jelly fish is called a smack.
• The oceans contain 99 percent of the living space on the planet.
• The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
• There are 701 types of pure breed dogs.
• There are about 100 breeds of cats.
• A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
• Over 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles worldwide are killed by plastic rubbish every year. Marine life, in particular turtles, is prone to mistaking plastic bags for jellyfish, ingesting them and dying of intestinal blockage.
• Infant beavers are called kittens.
• The fastest bird, the spine-tailed swift, can fly as fast as 106mph.
• Slugs have 4 noses.
• Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex.
• Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
• Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the Western Pacific.
• A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.
• A cheetah can reach a top speed approaching 70 mph.
• A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length.
• Greyhounds can jump a distance of 27 feet.
• Yak milk is pink in color.
• An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes.
• Of the approximately 200 eggs laid by a female leatherback sea turtle an average of two will survive their youth and grow to sexual maturity.
• Dolphins sleep with one half of the brain at a time, and one eye closed.
• A woodpecker can peck 20 times per second.
• For every person there are rougly 200 million insects.
• An electric eel can produce a shock of up to 650 volts.
• The leech has 32 brains.
• Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
• The Galpagos Tortoise has a potential life span of 200 years.
•  A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• The average outdoor only cat has a lifespan of about three years. Indoor only cats can live sixteen years and longer.
• The cheetah is the only cat in the world that can't retract its claws.
• The praying mantis only has one ear.
• Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
• It takes a lobster about seven years to grow to be one pound.
• The membranes in a dog's nose, if unfolded and laid out, would be larger than the dog itself.
• Large kangaroos can cover over 30 feet with each jump.
• A group of owls is called a parliament.
• Of all known forms of animals life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still exist today.
• A rhinoceros's horn is made of hair.
• On average, pigs live for about 15 years.
• Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.
• Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. They are immune to every type of disease including cancer.
• Kiwi birds are blind, they hunt by smell.
• A chameleon’s tongue is twice the length of its body.
• Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks.
• Male seahorses produce offspring.
• The placement of a donkey's eyes in its head enables it to see all four feet at all times.
• Giraffes have no vocal cords.
• A full-grown bear can run as fast as a horse.
• Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die.
• Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.
• An albatross can sleep while flying.
• A dolphin's hearing is so acute that it can pick up an underwater sound from fifteen miles away.
• A mosquito has 47 teeth.
• No two zebras have the same markings.
• A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.
• Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
• Butterflies taste with their hind feet.
• The sex organ on a male spider is located at the end of one of its legs.
• Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places.
• Armadillos, opossums, and sloth’s spend about 80% of their lives sleeping.
• Lobsters can live up to 50 years.
• The ears of a cricket are located on the front legs, just below the knee.
• Bees have five eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and 2 larger ones in front.