Man without a stomach

I never knew we could live without a stomach!

We met a guy at a dinner reception last night and discovered he had his stomach completely removed. I am sure you can guess why. The BIG C, of course. Yes, he had cancer of the stomach. I think he also had part of his liver removed. But he still has his intestines. He opted not to have chemotherapy. A lot of people believe that the moment you go for chemo, you are as good as dead. Chemo is non-discriminatory. It kills good and bad cells.

So he's alive and cured (s0rt of). That's the good news.

The bad news? It can put you in the poor house. He had to take 4 pills a day for 5 years. You got it, the blood-sucking pharmaceutical companies charge a bomb for them. RM100 for one pill. That's RM400 a day. RM146,000 a year. RM730,000 for five years. That's not including the cost of surgery and doctor's fees. And he has to take it for the rest of his life. He's taking 2 pills a day now.

So, what is the price of life? Fortunately for this cancer survivor, he owns a factory and could sell off a couple of his houses. But for the rest of us mere salary-earners your best bet is to try very hard to stay healthy.

Still wonder why we need a healthy campus?

How not to teach

It was quite embarrassing. The MC (PRO Mohamad) teased me as I went up the stage the "sixth time". No, lah, I did not publish so many books. I was actually representing a colleague twice (Izham) and I went up two more times for the 4 monographs (co-authored with several colleagues) and my "constructivist" book. I think Mat was just trying to liven up the stage. If you want to get a copy, you should be able to get it at the MPH Bookstore or USM Press. Very cheap only, RM58 per copy - how about supporting a poor professor? If you want a teaser, read the free copy when it was only a report.

(Left photo) That's me receiving a copy of my own book (The Construction of a Constructivist : Learning How to Teach without Teaching) from the Honorable Governor of Penang, Tun Abbas Abdul Rahman (in light blue batik). He was quite amused by the title and the fact that I went up to shake his hands so many times. Incidentally, Tun Abbas was once a school teacher so I remarked to him that "this is his area" and he said yes.

Do you know where they entertained the VVIPs after the launch? At the KFC right next to the launching area. These guys at the fastfood joint must have been ecstatic to have the Governor for lunch. And what did the rest of the guests, including the authors, get to eat? Kueh.

I did a little shopping after that. Got myself a cute little wireless router for my office (RM199) so that I can work with multiple computers. Then went for lunch at a place selling various types of laksa at the basement of the mall. Nice idea. Friendly staff. Efficient service. Good presentation. I had Lontong Johor. First sight ... nice! Lots of vegetables. My kind of food. Taste? As Randy would say "it was just OK for me man. I wasn't blown away".

And then I went to the supermarket to buy some Washington Red Apples. I had promised some ladies in my office to buy them some apples. I am promoting healthy living, you see?

Talk is good - conversations continues

I spent the whole of yesterday talking. OK, I didn't talk all the time. Sometimes I listened too. And I had kueh for morning tea (which I usually don't), skipped lunch because my research team members didn't feel the need to go for lunch after eating all the kueh. And then there was more kueh and more talk in the afternoon. So, that wasn't a very healthy diet but hey, I loved the kueh. Let's not do it too often though.

Picture on the left is my office at the Corporate and Sustainable Development Division. We used to have these research discussions at my old office at HBP but we wanted a change of view. See? I even had the blinds open when using the LCD projector. Ah, as I said we had kueh (local delicacies) and Chinese tea. What are we working on? We are trying to show the value of heritage properties in George Town. Its a research project funded by NAPREC (a research agency under the Insitute of Valuation). What have we found out? Ahh, we are not telling yet but we are very excited that we have accomplished most of what we have set out to do.

And then we had more talk, in the afternoon. There's this young lady in the office who seems to enjoy treating the staff to kueh, once in a while. I asked "why?", "what's the occassion?". She said "saja", which loosely translates to "I just feel like it". It reminds of the movie (or was that a saying) about "random acts of kindness". And then we spent sometime chit-chatting, you know casual "unimportant things", getting to know each other a little better. And then we turned to more serious stuff like the weekend retreat planned for 23/24 June 2007 at the Harvard Club. OK, not that one in the US of A. This one is in the northern state of Kedah about one hour plus away. One of the things we want to know was why are we going there? Team-building, some said. Fine! Do we have a problem to solve? Of course we all do. But, hey, we don't have to focus on the negatives, only. We should also promote our strengths. What is it we like about our collegues? Our work culture? The processes and systems in the office? How can we build on our strengths and work to eliminate our weaknesses?

But, my family members say I "talk" too much on my blog. So, bye ... for now. Going to my book launch. Will bring you pictures.