Reflections

Simple Secrets to a Happy Life

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:25:00 +0000

If you've been browsing around my blog, particularly in my Pearls of Wisdom category, you'd find how I love posting inspirational quotes that can challenge our thinking, perhaps change our views or even spur us into action. Sometimes receiving some words of wisdom in due season can become an awakening moment for a person seeking direction, needing motivation or just wanting to simplify his/her life -- this fact has certainly applied to me many times and I'm sure it does for others too.

Here's a beautiful video from Simple Truths that could give you an encouragement today...

Introducing... the Apple iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:18:00 +0000

You know how much of a tech buff I am, so if there are any breaking news on new gadgets, new web trends and blogosphere related talk - i'll definitely cover them in my articles (hmm... perhaps I should start a new blog on that niche altogether, whatcha think?).

Moving on... did you hear the latest techbuzz in the news today? Well, if not let me give you a heads-up - Apple's CEO Steve Jobs has officially unveiled iPad tablet. What is it? Well, it's basically a giant iPhone/iPod Touch and a shrunken Mac rolled into one. Here's a news snippet from Channel News Asia about this new gadget:

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple chief executive Steve Jobs unveiled a new touchscreen tablet computer on Wednesday dubbed the "iPad," seeking to carve out a niche between the laptop and the smartphone.

The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimetre) colour screen and resembles an oversized iPod Touch or iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3-cm) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kilogrammes) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory.

The price tag for the device, Apple's first major product since the iPhone three years ago, came in less than expected by most technology analysts.

The cheapest iPad model, with 16G of memory, is 499 dollars while the most expensive - which includes 3G wireless connectivity and 64G of memory - costs 829 dollars.

Apple said it would start shipping the iPad, which has a virtual keyboard but can also be hooked up to an external keyboard, within 60 days, making them available worldwide in late March.

The 3G version will reach the market in late April.

You can also check out this video where Steve Jobs demonstrated some of iPad's cool features during the launch.

It was only a few weeks after Google launched Nexus One and grabbed a lot of attention, with Apple's latest launch of iPad, clearly the battle is on among the gadgets. I wonder who will emerge victorious? Let's wait and see...

Credits: Channel News Asia , ITN News (video)

When Words Hurt

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:42:00 +0000

What do you do when other people hurt you with their careless words? Do you try to remain as calm and composed as you can be, holding on to your rein of patience or should you retaliate and unleash your wrath to put that person in his/her place?

Some people cloak their tactlessness behind the excuse of being brutally honest, but I find that in most cases those who claim to be such, enjoy the brutality more than the honesty. How many of us have been scarred by rash and thoughtless words?

Indeed, words can be very powerful - with our words we can choose to hurt or heal, comfort or discourage, build up or tear down. Let us choose to do good with our words today and always.

"The genius of communication is the ability to be both totally honest

and totally kind at the same time."

John Powell

Bagoong Rice with Gingered Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:19:00 +0000

It's been a while since I shared a recipe here and I miss posting stuff on my Eats Time! category, so from here on I promise to post more food entries in the coming weeks. For now, let me share with you one of my favorite dishes - a regular on my monthly menu, Bagoong Rice. This dish is actually inspired from a famous Thai rice dish, but our local shrimp paste certainly brings out the real Filipino taste in it.

As I have confessed last time, I'm not the type of cook who's into exact measurements (the quantities here are purely my approximations), so feel free to make adjustments on the recipe according to how it would suit your taste.

Ingredients:
(for the Bagoong Rice)
2 big bowls of cooked rice
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of spicy shrimp paste (Barrio Fiesta spicy ginisang bagoong), already sauted/not the fresh one
pepper to taste

Side Dishes:
-- Gingered Chicken
2 pcs of skinless and boneless breast chicken, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
ginger, thin slices (about 7-10 pcs)
1 stalk of onion leaves, chopped 2 inches long
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper

-- Egg, 2 scrambled eggs, cut into thin pieces
-- Ripe Mango, sliced (you can use fresh or canned)
-- Cucumber, thinly sliced (optional)

Procedure:
1) Bagoong Rice
In a wok or pan, saute the garlic in oil until light brown, add the shrimp paste and mix well. Put the cooked rice and continue to mix. Season with pepper.
2) Gingered Chicken
In a wok, saute the ginger in high heat and add garlic, keep sauteing until the garlic turns to light brown. Add the onion leaves and saute for 30 secs, add chicken and saute for 2 minutes. Put the oyster sauce, light soy and pepper and saute until chicken is tender and ready. (Tip: the trick in bringing out the flavor in any sauteed dish is to cook in high heat, but be careful not to burn it!)

Serve this dish with sliced ripe mango, some sliced cucumber and eggs on the side. Enjoy!

Dramatic Chipmunk On A Borderless Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:20:00 +0000

Who could forget that 5-second Dramatic Chipmunk (DC) video which spread like wildfire on the internet? Receiving tens of millions of views across the Net and hailed by People Magazine as one of the Top 10 Wildest Stars of You Tube when it was first released in 2007, this Dramatic Chipmunk has indeed gone places.

The Dramatic Chipmunk's break out video is actually from LG, and they have recreated 4 more videos showing this little fellow's attempt to live borderless as he goes out for an adventure and travels the world. These videos are in conjunction with LG's current campaign called "Live Borderless" -- it's a fun contest open to all, and the prize is definitely enticing: round-the world business class ticket which would allow you 80 days of travel and US$100,000 prize money at your disposal.

To join the contest, all you have to do is to submit either a video or an essay telling how you intend to use the "prize" - it's that simple. By March 2010, a short-list of six entries will be selected by visitors to the website; these six will then be brought to Dubai, UAE for a final round of selection via a judging panel. The selected winner then gets to take the journey they suggested, business class all the way with $100,000 in their back pocket. Part of LG's objective in this campaign is to study the social dynamics of the world, to see whether people would be more inclined to use the prize all for fun/all for themselves or to use it as an opportunity to help others in need. Well, if I were to win, I'd make sure I will have a balance of both.

Head over to LG's Live Borderless website now, you have nothing to lose by simply sharing wishful thinking, right? I'm definitely joining, just finishing up on my essay entry.

New Phone On The Block: Google Nexus One

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:01:00 +0000

It's only been a week since the Big G launched its first new mobile phone - Google Nexus One, yet a lot of buzz - raves and rants, have been going around the tech world about this new smartphone. I guess a lot of people are curious whether it is indeed worthy of comparison to its giant rival - iPhone. Earlier prophesied as the iPhone's killer, the Nexus One is powered with Android OS version 2.1 technology.

So what's with all the hype? Let's have a closer look at what this phone has to offer, shall we...

Hardware Features

- Display: 3.7” AMOLED 480x800 WVGA displayThinness: 11.5mm; Weight: 130g

- Processor/Speed: Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 3G QSD8250 chipset, delivering speeds up to 1GHz
- Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus with flash and geo tagging
- Onboard memory: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
- Expandable memory: 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB)
- Noise Suppression: Dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc.
- Ports: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with four contacts for inline voice and remote control
- Battery: Removable 1400 mAh
- Personalized laser engraving: Up to 50 characters on the back of the phone
- Trackball: Tri-color notification LED, alerts when new emails, chats, text messages arrive

Software Features

- Enter text without typing.
- Use a voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields: speak a text message, instant message, tweet, Facebook update, or complete an email.
- Tell your phone what you want it to do.
- Search Google, call contacts, or get driving directions by just speaking into your phone.
- Take personalization to the next level.
- Dynamic, interactive, live wallpapers react to the touch of a finger.
- More widgets and five home screen panels allow for further device customization.
- Capture camera-quality pictures and video with your device.
- 5 megapixel camera includes LED flash, auto focus, zoom, white balance and color effects.
- View pictures and Picasa Web Albums in the new 3D Gallery.
- Record Hi-Res MPEG4 video, and then upload to YouTube with one click.
- Read your voicemail messages.
- Get transcribed voicemail with Google Voice integration, without changing your number.

Obviously, Nexus One is not available in Dubai just yet, it's only being sold in the US at this time and I've read at Google Mobile Forum that initial shipment will only be limited to UK, HongKong and Singapore as test countries (but with no definite date yet). No news as to when it would be released globally... killing off the excitement among gadget addicts around the world.

Credits: List of Features taken from Manila Bulletin

Haiti Earthquake Tragedy

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:48:00 +0000

By now, you must have heard about the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that hit the impoverished Caribbean island of Haiti yesterday. Thousands are feared dead and their country is now in the middle of total chaos. Haiti has never experienced an earthquake this strong in 200 years, it can be described as a catastrophe of major proportions. Buildings across the country's capital Port-au-Prince, including the Presidential Palace, literally crumbled. The destruction was really massive. All of a sudden the sad memories of the 1990 Luzon (Philippines) 7.8 M_Searthquake came back, tragedies like these are just heart-breaking.

See the news report below from Associated Press on the Haiti earthquake. Let's pray earnestly for our Haitian brothers.

AVATAR in 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:26:00 +0000

The "Avatar" movie has created a lot of worldwide buzz and a box-office record to sustain its impact and fame among moviegoers. It's now at 2nd place in the All-Time Worldwide Box Office record, after Titanic (source: IMDb), bagging over US$ 1.3 billion. It's amazing that these two top-grossing films were both from the same creator - James Cameron (that man is a genius!).

I got to see Avatar in 3D last weekend with my husband and like the millions of other who have seen it - we were blown away! The special effects, the story and the over-all quality of the movie were really impressive. Avatar indeed raised the bar for state-of-the-art film technology. When the movie ended, it received a well-deserved applause from the audience... and I was one of those who clapped happily.

Chic Email: MailChimp

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:19:00 +0000

Have you ever received those fancy e-mail newsletters (HTML emails) with those good looking background stationeries and with very cool looking templates? Ever wondered how they were designed and if it is something you can whisk yourself creating?

I've been tasked to work recently on the email invitations to be sent for our ministry's upcoming anniversary so I had to search for an email marketing program I can use for this project, something that is user-friendly and "not too techie" for me. There are a lot of email marketing programs out there, but I was looking for a free one and not the ones on trial basis only. From my browsing I stumbled upon MailChimp - a very good email marketing tool and a reputable one. MailChimp has a forever free plan which allows you to use the program for free if you have less than 500 subscribers/email contacts and your sending has a cap limit of 3,000 emails monthly. They have built-in templates available for use, and customizing your email design is a breeze.

(If you are need more templates you can download from their email marketing resources page - where I got to download a free email program too: High Impact Email 5, this can be used as a stand-alone email software but can also be used to complement MailChimp. You can also download from other sites and just import them into the email program, here's where you can download 100+ free HTML email templates - Patternhead.com).

Since MailChimp suits our requirements, I decided to give it a try, and the thing I love about it is though you're only on a basic free account, the features available to premium users (paid account) are also the same features you can enjoy on a free account, the only difference is the cap on subscribers and sending quota. MailChimp has several useful features, but most important for me is its capability to monitor and analyze opened / unopened, successful and bounced deliveries, making the task of follow-up and re-sending a lot easier and more efficient. This program is definitely tailored as an excellent marketing tool for business, but it will also suit your personal purposes, e.g. send holiday emails or personal newsletters to your friends (which would make you look cool by the way...tsk..tsk... if only I discovered this before Christmas!).

I'll be posting more articles like this in the future to feature sites that offer helpful and useful free stuff to Net users (kudos to these sites for their generosity!)...who wouldn't love FREEBIES?

The Burj Inauguration

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:00:00 +0000

(Article RE-POSTED from my photoblog: Mix Pix, dtd 05Jan2010).

The Burj - currently the world's tallest building (over 800 meters/160 floors high) and serves as an iconic symbol of Dubai's economic growth and stature, was finally inaugurated last night in conjunction with the fourth anniversary of Sheikh Mohammed’s accession as Ruler of Dubai. A grand spectacle of choreographed sound, light, water and fireworks display was the highlight of the event.

Together with some friends, I went to see the show and squeezed our way through the huge crowd that gathered. We secured a spot in close range, but sadly, that may not have been a good idea, it was a struggle to take good photos and videos while in the midst of a restless crowd who couldn't keep still because of anticipation and excitement. Good thing my hubby managed to take good photos from a strategic place near his office. The fireworks display was very good, but a lot of people felt that it was too short, we were clamoring for more and even waited a bit longer, hoping there would be a part 2 or something... lol ...

Here's my captured video of the fireworks display...

To view our captured photos, please head over to my photoblog - Mix Pix, I want to centralize all photo posts there especially if it's too many, so I've put only a thumbnail here to direct you to my photoblog (click on blog link or at image).

Have a great day!

What are your goals for this year?

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:17:00 +0000

Time flies quickly - we are all aware of this fact, and this truth also serves as a good reminder for us to value each day that comes and make sure that the things we do each day pushes us a step further toward realizing the goals we have set for ourselves, whether just for this year or for long term.

Hmm... maybe I should backtrack a bit, perhaps you're saying to yourself - "goals?... I haven't even taken the time to think of that!", well if you haven't, it's never too late, why not take this time to do some serious contemplating in a quiet corner before getting overrun again by life's busy schedules. These are a few questions/guide which may help in penning down a list (yup, it's always best to write them down and put it where you can always see it, being reminded of it constantly would help a lot in keeping us on track and in envisioning what we want to achieve):

What do I want to be?
What do I want to do?
What do I want to have?
What do I want to give?
When do I want to see these things happen?
What steps/changes should I make to turn these goals/dreams into reality?

Categorizing the answers to these questions according to the many broad areas of our lives can help in getting down to the specifics. These are some categories I could think of and are quite self-explanatory, perhaps you may have some more in mind:

Family and Home
Finances and Career
Physical and Health
Spiritual and Ethical
Social and Cultural
Mental and Educational

Hope this helps. All the best to you as you come up with your goals and making each one happen!

A Fresh Start

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 12:46:00 +0000

New Year is the time to unfold new horizons and to realize new dreams, to rediscover the strength and faith within you, to rejoice in simple pleasures and gear up for new challenges.

Everyone gets excited when a new year rolls in, it's because for most of us, it opens a brand new opportunity to start afresh. Something about the turning of the clock to 12 midnight - ignites hope and anticipation within us for new (and of course, better) things to come.

For some this could be a year of leaps and bounds - a year of big changes and breakthroughs, yet for others, it could just be baby steps of progress, if any. But regardless of how our efforts will amount to in realizing our aspirations for this year, let us not forget that what truly matters is that we are boldly reaching forward and striving to become a better person than we were yesterday.

My blog is definitely starting afresh this year with my revived passion for blogging and with a new blog look to go along with it. Hope you guys are liking it by the way. Big thanks to Blogger Blog Templates and Template Lite for this chic design.

Wishing you all a truly fulfilling 2010!

Happy New Year... (and welcome back...to me!)

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 20:52:00 +0000

First off... Happy New Year to everyone! I do hope that you all had a blast celebrating Christmas, ours was just a simple celebration at home, but it was a lot of fun since we shared that special Christmas dinner with good friends. A bit sad though that we are away from our families but that's a reality we have to embrace since we live abroad.

It's been months and months since I last posted something here, and quite honestly, since I've neglected this blog and my other photoblog for far too long (won't bore you with my excuses anymore), it felt quite uncomfortable even just to log in to Blogger... hehehe. But I managed to muster up all courage I've been holding back these past days, and finally went ahead with making my presence felt once more in the blogworld... so here I am again... at the onset of a major comeback, so to speak. And since a brand new year is about to kick in, the timing for a well-deserved blog make-over just can't get any better. So please watch out for my blog's new look at the start of the year! *wink*

For now, let me just wish you and your loved ones more blessings and abounding favor for 2010. Cheers!

Going out...coming in...

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Every exit is an entry somewhere.
- Tom Stoppard

I couldn't agree more with this quote. An end to something, especially when it brings happiness and good into your life, is almost always a never easy thing to accept. However, it is only when we let go of what we are holding onto tightly -- be it in relationships, opportunities and many forms of comfort zones -- and be willing to embrace what is ahead, then and only then can we experience the joy and excitement of new discoveries and beginnings.

Rescue Music Video

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:01:00 +0000

One of the things which took a chunk of my time while I was absent from this blog was my active participation in our church's recent concert project. Being a part of the multimedia team, I was tasked with making several videos to be used as background during the acoustic concert performances.

This is one of the videos I made, I created one without audio (as video background to the music team's live performance and saved a music video file I can upload to YouTube and embed here). I find Desperation Band's rendition of this song to be the best and most suited for the video I made. Check it out...

Hope you were blessed with the song's message.

Back On Track

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 12:01:00 +0000

Wow... I soooo missed this blog! I think my recent absence was the longest I've been away. Life's demands and busyness just caught up with me these past few weeks and just had to prioritize those other things. Thanks to everyone who still dropped by despite my absence, I appreciate it guys!

It's good to be back...

Sandbox Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:17:00 +0000

I really enjoy receiving newsletters from Simple Truths. Besides their site updates, they regularly include in their correspondences beautiful excerpts from books they are currently promoting, so even if you could not secure (just yet) a copy, you could at least get a hindsight of what you can learn from the book currently offered.

Here are some excerpts from the latest book they are promoting, a lot of beautiful insights can be grasped here:

Sandbox Wisdom by Tom Asacker

Sandbox Wisdom revisits our childhood to see what we should strive to rekindle as adults.

Fun, Laughter, and Enthusiasm...We should strive to keep that childlike spirit in our work and our play. When we grow up we take ourselves way too seriously, and sometimes we become a heart attack waiting to happen.

No Limit Thinking...As children we believe that we might become president, a great artist or a great explorer. But as adults we begin to put fences around those dreams.

No Inhibitions...Children speak from the heart, and as adults we should strive to do more of that.

Read People and Situations...Children can see past the trappings of material success and see into the core of people. As we grow older we begin to label people, and as the saying goes, "labeling is disabling."

Creativity and Imagination...A great philosopher once observed, "Genius is childhood recaptured at will." The imagination and creativity we had at five too often begins to fade at fifteen.

Hope you learned something from all these, I sure did today.

Do You Care?

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:41:00 +0000

There are just too many things going on inside and outside of our lives, that at times it's difficult to filter which ones we need to care about most and and which ones we should just plainly ignore. Check out this dNneero survey and find out mine and other people's answers to some important (and some absurd) issues raised here...

Watching TV on the Net

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:01:00 +0000

Hubby and I purposely have never subscribed to cable TV ever, since we are not really much into "heavy" TV watching anyways. Besides, with the amazing internet technology nowadays, watching your favorite TV program can also be done now through the Net.

Just google "watch TV online" and you'll find many available options already for online TV watching - with a vast array of worldwide channels, I must add. When I'm in the mood for TV, I just normally tune in to the live news telecasts to keep abreast on the local news in the Philippines, the only thing is I just have to adjust to the time difference or watch the recorded ones if I cannot see the live broadcast.

If you are Filipino abroad like myself and would like to watch local Philippine channels on the net or perhaps you'd like to see other channels abroad (BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel, American TV Channels, etc), here are my favorite live TV sites which you can check out (please note that a broadband connection is a pre-requisite)...

ABS-CBN Live! Streaming

GMA Live! Streaming

Studio 23 Live! Streaming

QTV Live! Streaming

International Channels

Enjoy and have a great day!

Dry Spell

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:34:00 +0000

Hi, guys! I'm sure a lot of you are wondering -- "What's up with this blog?", "Why aren't there any new posts?"... well, your friendly blogger has been busy (*cough* lazy *cough*) lately.

I guess it's just one of those days commonly called as "blogging dry spell", a critical condition (should I say -- "virus") that attacks a blogger resulting to a slump in writing... LOL! I'm sure all bloggers experience this at one time or another, it's normal especially for those who have been writing for quite some time (am I justifying it too hard?), and a remedial break is all that's needed to do the fix and jump start afresh.

So here I am... back from my blogging slumber, and now ready to get the groove back. Now, where shall I start?

Rare Parrot Flower

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:01:00 +0000

The uniqueness and beauty of this rare flower grown in Thailand will literally leave you speechless...

Scientific Name: Impatiens Psittacina
Thai Name: Dork Nok Khaew
Size: Plant grows to app. 6 feet (1.8) meters
Leaf : Broad, sharply pointed, to 2 1/2 inches (6 cm)
Flower size: App. 2 inches (5cm)
Stem thickness: To 1/2 inch (1.5cm)
Bloom season: October/November in Thailand
Growing conditions: Tropical, humid, moist
* This is a protected plant specie which is illegal to export.

See other Wordless Wednesday entries HERE.

Useful Softwares

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:09:00 +0000

I have recently joined the multimedia ministry in our church, and it has been a fun and fulfilling experience so far. I have always had a knack for techie stuff and I find pleasure in learning new things especially along the lines of new technology and internet/computer know-hows.

While browsing the Net to look for multimedia resources (I'll save this for another post and share with you very helpful multimedia related links next time), I came across two very useful softwares which you might be interested in downloading (free trial versions, clicking on name will take you to the download page link):

Camtasia Studio
Do you have powerpoint presentations which you would like to convert into a video file without losing the animations? Camstasia does this with its screen capture feature. Anything you play or do on your PC screen - a movie file, photo slideshow, even your internet browsing activity, can be recorded by Camtasia. Cool, huh!

AVS Video Converter
AVS Media has many products but this is the one most helpful for me. This video converter enables you to convert any media file into your desired format, e.g. flv to avi, mpeg to wmv, strip audio from video file and convert to mp3, etc.), and you can even edit the videos before your conversion. I usually download videos I like from YouTube with Firefox's DownloadHelper plug-in and they usually come in flv (flash) video format, with AVS I can easily convert flv to the accepted format required by some media presentation software I use (like Easy Worship for church).

There are many more very handy softwares out there, and in my future posts I'll share and recommend to you my tried and tested ones.

Salads - An Effective Nutrient Booster

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Did you know that salads can effectively boost four vital nutrients every person needs?

People across the world are trying to eat healthy, and salads are a big part of that equation.

In a recent issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, a study of more than 9,000 women and 8,000 men found that those who eat salads and raw vegetables have higher intakes and better blood levels of four nutrients: vitamins A and C, folate and the phytochemicals or plant nutrients called carateneoids. These nutrients are tied to reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

So, make sure to include salads in your regular food intake.

Sailing Out

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:59:00 +0000

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. - Andre Gide

Swine Flu

noreply@blogger.com (Mariz) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:26:00 +0000

Swine Flu -- you've seen it on the news' headlines, people everywhere have become panicky about it, and countries all over the world are taking all necessary precautions so as to avoid getting hit by it, but what exactly is this disease and how can one detect it and take careful measures against it? The first step to prevention is arming ourselves with the proper knowledge about Swine Flu and share these information to others as well.

Here's a very concise and helpful article I found on Gulf News recently which everyone needs to be aware about so we can guard ourselves better against this endemic disease:

SWINE FLU AND SAFETY MEASURES

What is it? It is a virus that mutated from pigs and transmitted to some humans

Which places have been affected? Mexico City, California, Texas, Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Spain, France, Thailand, Cuba, Arizona, India, Taiwan.

Is there a cure? The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website states that there is no vaccine to specifically protect humans from swine flu, only to protect pigs. Although GlaxoSmithKline Plc's flu treatment Relenza and Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu appear effective against the strains of the virus the CDC has tested.

What are authorities doing to contain the virus? The World Health Organization went on high alert, dispatching top experts to the United States and Mexico. The CDC has also set up emergency operation centres.

Signs and symptoms
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
Sudden dizziness
Confusion
Severe or persistent vomiting
Fever with a rash (among children)
Bluish skin color (among children)

Easy ways to protect against infection
Little can be done to prevent an outbreak of flu from spreading, health experts caution, but they say common sense measures can help individuals protect themselves. Practice the following:
- Wash your hands frequently
- Cover your cough or your sneeze
- Use alcohol-based gel or foam hand sanitizers
- If you have flu-like symptoms, stay away from work or public transportation
- Social distancing. Stay away from people who might be infected