Here's My Story

(continue from Part 1 ) I was pleasantly surprised to receive the results a mere three days later. Total IgE shows the total antibodies that my body produced to fight allergens and its level was pretty significant. However, only a small portion of it was attributed to chicken (wth!). Responding to my queries, Dr Sia said that there's no need for me to avoid or even cut down on intake of chicken. At most, maybe I avoid it when the symptoms are bad. Based on these results and by process of elimination, the next probable trigger of this vasomotor rhinitis is the sudden change in extreme temperatures, something that's difficult to control. I've already been doing what he suggested i.e. aircon temperature not set too cold, take warm shower. Treatment of the symptoms remain the same: antihistamine and, if bad, steroidal nasal spray continuously for a period of time.

Earlier this month, I felt my throat was irritated but I wasn't coughing though. Since it persisted for a while, I consulted my GP. Uniform redness at the back of the throat but no inflammation or swelling. So I was given antihistamine and thymol. It went away but came back about two weeks later with a vengeance: daily morning inflammation of the nasal membrane (I usually tell people it's "sinus" for simplicity but it's actually not accurate; accurate term is vasomotor rhinitis) and slight sorethroat. It appears my GP is a little stumped and so asked his daughter, who is a doctor herself, to provide second opinion. She recommended the following: (1) Avoiding milk and gluten. Allergic to these can manifest in this rhinitis. (2) Take two capsules of fish oil daily and 1000 mg Vitamin C four times a day. (3) Eat organic food To be honest, I'm not comfortable with the last two as their cost is prohibitive. Moreover, such extremely high dose of Vitamin C is questio...

Despite having said that I gave up on Inara , for reasons I've already forgotten, I persisted and so now she joins Barik as my choice of tank. I think what helped me most was this reddit thread , where I learned to cycle through her defensive abilities. I first found success with a popular standard build: Geomancer - 5 Insurmountable - 1 Lodestone - 1 Steadfast - 3 Stone Bulwark - 5 Gameplay:   Because I want to add DR feature to Warder's Field, I modified it this way: Geomancer - 5 Insurmountable - 1 Sacred Ground - 1 Steadfast - 3 Stone Bulwark - 5 Gameplays:    This standard build has now evolved into this build: Geomancer - 5 Standing Stones - 1 Sacred Ground - 1 Steadfast - 3 Stone Bulwark - 5 The lost of extra ammo and ammo regeneration shouldn't matter much to me since I'm not good at aiming. Gameplays:     My favourite is the build that provides significantly more DR upon activating Warder's Field but I usually feel safe in using that only if there are t...

  They had applied GST formula i.e. service charge was taxed, instead of the current SST's tax regime where the charge is excluded. I realised this only after I got home. I went to their website, hoping that there was a way for me to tell the management this but to no avail. It was only recently I thought of checking out their Facebook.

I can aim but quite poorly. That's why I play mainly support characters in Paladins (and Overwatch). My next preferred role is tank. If I play a dps character, it's usually because they have features that are more forgiving towards poor aiming skill e.g. Torbjorn, Junkrat, Symmetra in Overwatch. On my return to Paladins this time, I tried the following dps champions, chronologically: Talus (new) Moji (new) Viktor (tried years before) Tyra (tried years before) Moji is the easiest in terms of aiming but they have survivability issue. I can't seem to be competent in using Talus's Blitz ability. I'm still puzzled why I cannot make Viktor work. So far, Tyra is the most successful. As usual, I searched for recommended builds. I am attracted to the talent Mercy Kill because there are defensive cards associated with using nades. I first tried using FrostFangs' build but because I'm not good at aiming, the card Primal Might is useless to me (refer here for Tyra...

 

Barik was a favourite the last time I played Paladins and still is now. In fact, it's the only tank I'll play at the moment. I tried playing Inara like 7 to 8 times and concluded she's just not for me. Not too keen on Fernando or Ruckus. I've tried 3 different builds and at the moment, I find this to be the most consistent: Field Deploy - 4 Forged Alloy - 1 Healing Station - 4 Brave and Bold - 3 Failsafe - 3 Some gameplays:

(continue from Part 2 ) Six days later, I reported to the dentist that there wasn't any noticeable difference. So she recommended redoing the crown, at her own expense. Although it was the right thing to do, in my opinion, I am still grateful that she offered that.   However, the problem was that at this stage, it was uncertain whether the cause of the pain/extreme sensitivity was due to structural problem of the crown or that the nerves were already damaged. So she suggested that I monitor for two weeks after the temporary crown was inserted, while waiting for the permanent one to arrive. If there is improvement, then proceed with sealing the permanent crown and then further observe its effect. If the sensitivity/pain is still there, then no choice but to undergo root canal treatment   If the sensitivity/pain worsens during the two-week period of wearing temporary crown, then I would have to decide whether to go for root canal treatment right before sealing the permanent cr...

Our usual chap fan shop, Family Mixed Rice, also houses two other food operators selling pork noodle and Western food respectively. The Western food operator, Sheng's Fusion Food, also opens at night for dinner. As expected, the price of the Western food is cheap, so one day, I decided to try their grilled fish: At RM 12, it was cheap considered the portion. The taste wasn't super delicious but neither was it bad. I do recommend it if you want cheap Western food and not hunkering for good quality.

Jenos was a new champion to me: he wasn't around when I played Paladins years ago. Initially I hesitated to select him because he lacks burst healing regardless of choice of talent (unlike Grohk with Spirit Domain's talent, Seris with Mortal Reach talent, and Ying with Life Exchange talent) and his escape mechanism appears lacklustre (65% movement speed). However, I can't remember why I tried him anyway 😆 It's still true that he has no burst healing and to compensate for that, I need to quickly top off any missing hp and also to anticipate who will receive huge damage soon. Tricky. As for ways to escape, I try to make use of the environment (terrain, building) to take advantage of Stellar Wind's extra movement speed to shake off enemies. Even better if I first use Void Grip before moving away. Interestingly, despite his lack of burst healing, he remains a popular pick (together with Corvus) in tournament and apparently also a popular ban choice (again, together wit...