Asian Tiger

Heard of the age old saying “charity begins at home“? I’m sure we all have and I’m pretty sure there are many out there who is as baffled as me on the meaning. We all know that charity is good and we should practice giving away to the needy when possible. I would understand that most of the time, we have our own constraints and our wallets/pockets don’t seem to fatten up. Who says you need to be charitable from your own pockets?

FreeRice.com which is a sister site of Poverty.com has came up with an ingenious way to help people be charitable. It combines a vocabulary puzzle and prize for every correct guess. Each correct guess earns 10 grains of rice which will be donated to the needy. All you need to do is make correct guesses. You have nothing to lose and all gains go to the poor.

The puzzle does work up your brain muscles as some words are unheard of. I had a great time testing myself and managed to reach a vocabulary level of 27 with over 2000 grains of rice won. They had me at “twaddle“. If you want to know the answer, it’s nonsense. Now, do your bit for charity and enjoy yourself at the same time.

Thanks to nemo of Asiayak for a kind invite to participate in Asiayak’s Photo Contest. The winner stands to receive a return air ticket for any destination served by AirAsia. If you do not already know, AirAsia is Malaysia’s very successful budget airlines that fly regionally. They are poised to be the next major airline to fly long-haul on a shoestring but that’s another blog post altogether.

Back to Asiayak’s photo contest. Though the prize is an air ticket, should you choose not to accept that, you can opt for the cash prize of US$150; approximately RM517.00. Not bad for just submitting photos and praying for it to win.

Here’s my submission for the contest. I took this photo while sitting in a tour bus at a roundabout in Bali. The bus was driven at a high speed which made photography difficult. I’m glad the photo turned out alright save for some reflections visible at the bottom left.

Hope I can make it to the finals, if not winning the prize.  I urge you to participate in Asiayak’s photo contest; you never know if you’ll land that free air ticket for a nice vacation or cash money.

Shopping in the Damansara area has been made easier and more accessible with the introduction of free shuttle bus service from Kelana Jaya LRT Station to Ikano Power Center and vice versa. The free shuttle service is available daily on a scheduled basis as follows:

From Kelana Jaya LRT Station to Ikano Power Center:
9.00am, 10.00am, 11.30am, 1.00pm, 3.00pm, 4.30pm, 5,30pm, 7.00pm, 8.00pm and 9.30pm

From Ikano Power Center to Kelana Jaya LRT Station:
9.30am, 11.00am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm, 4.00pm, 5.00pm, 6.30pm, 7.30pm, 9.00pm and 10.30pm

Please note that the pickup points are at the bus stop opposite the Kelana Jaya LRT Station and the main entrance, Ground Floor, Ikano Power Center. You may refer to the route map below for directions. Click on the map for a larger view.