Alarming Tones

Ever since I changed my car alarm in '97 (the very same week I got the car), I am very used to the tones generated by my car alarm. But after more than a decade, the speaker is, well, suffering from a permanent case of larygnitis. It was then, that I sent my car back to my friend to have another installed. Because I was tight on budget, I opted for a single tone since the original tone costs RM85 upwards and it was not in stock. From that day on, I regretted my decision. Fast forward four months later, I scouted another alarm at Pasar Road and after some tests, it was loud and almost fits my original alarm speakers. So, I decided to rewire my on my own. I mean, what can go wrong?

This is the RM25 6-tone made in China horn

And this is the single tone alarm horn. Which incidentally,
is the same as a Proton Saga car which I hated. A lot.

Swapping the two horns is quite easy. All you need to
do is to remove the nut and the stand and then bolt
it to the existing stand in the car.

There! All done! Unfortunately, the sound that came
out was muffled. The funny thing was, it was extremely
loud when we tested it in the store. Maybe, when I
have the time, I will try to switch the polarity around
or test the car's battery voltage. But if everything is
OK, then I might need to buy another horn speaker.

WTF.... I mean, its just a simple swap, right? How bloody complicated can it get?

Eating porridge the Kristine way

And so, for lunch, we sat down to have some porridge. It was still hot even after my Wife sat it to cool for more than five minutes. There are various ways to cool the porridge ranging from scooping it at the sides of he bowl, stirring it, blowing it, teh tarik it, and so on. But this is what Kristine did.....

She takes the spoonful of porridge
and held it up to the fan to cool it

And if she does this everyday, she
will have a highly developed left
arm very soon!

Hotwheels Rogue Hog

All of a sudden, the price of a Hotwheels die-cast toy fell from RM5.90 to RM4.90. Well, at 7-11 anyway. And so, one hot and gruelling day, I decided to go to 7-11 for a cup of Slurpee. So, instead of asking the staff why there was a "Under maintenance" sign on the Slurpee machine, I decided to leave the shop empty handed. That was the plan untl I noticed the Hotwheels cars neatly hung at the sides of each display racks.

Yeah, suffice to say, I replace my would-be Slurpee with a Hotwheels car.

This is a second generation Rogue Hog. When it first
came out last year, it was a black Police car. Why did
I pick this one up? Well, the brighter paint scheme
made me take a more detailed notice on its design.

Yes, the rear fan can be a source for kit-bashign and
also the front driver seat which could be served as a
pilot seatfor a futuristic craft. I would say, its perfect
for a 1/48 or a 1/72scale figure. But I need an actual
pilot figure to determine its size, though.

Opening the car now is not just a simple 5-year old
throw-it-to-the-ground-until-it-splits-open tactic.
All you need to do is just get a proper sized drill
bit and drill through the rivets. Once it is done,
you can gently pry the car apart

And there you have it: from left to right, the chassis,
the metal chair, clear plastic canopy and silver body

This is the part which I am interested in. I will now
keep it in a safe place until I have a project for it

Another look from the rear. Somehow, the fan design is
mesmerizing. I could have it cast for multiple copies
but that would be very expensive though. Still lets
see what project needs these designs

Morons on the road

We're stuck in a traffic jam and he uses
his foot brake instead even when the
car was stationary for more than half a
minute. As soon as his foot got tired, it
rolled backwards and now, my bonnet
has a new scratch. No use horning him
as he knows what happened changed
lane asap.

This fella was so engrossed on his mobile phone and also
on the road traffic, I had to horn him repeatedly.

Meeting up with friends

Sometimes, I really wished I was still single so that I
can do whatever I want and still have time for my
friends and go to places where we can gather and
talk rot till the Sun comes down or goes up, etc.
But when you have a family, everything goes out
of the window as they come first. Now, all my
friends think I am a social recluse. Ha ha ha ha!

Eating Dragon fruits

Both girls love eating Dragon fruits, especially the red ones. And these fruits have a lot of liquid in them. As for me, I prefer to have the fruits in canned versions. Maybe I have not tasted the 'actual' Dragon fruit since the first one I tasted reminded me of something gross.

Krsitine with her new natural organic lisptick

And so did Kaelynn

The Bangsar River

Today is one of those difficult days. I was stuck for more than two hours due to the heavy rain. After seeing my last customer, it was time for me to go home as seeing the dark clouds means heavy rain that could come in minutes. Heavy rain that I would prefer to be indoors.

And so, every driver also had the same idea. Since I was in Jalan Pahang, there were only three routes for me to reach home. One was the PWTC turn-off to Kepong which allows me to use the back way towards Jalan Damansara. Unfortunately, it was clogged.

The other way was the turn-off near at Jalan Duta just after the Parliament. But this was clogged up as well. And so, the last route was through Jalan Bangsar which was surpirsingly clear. By now, the rain has started.

And within minutes, it changed from a slow drizzle to buckets and anymore, I can start to look out for cats & dogs. By this time, I was just at the flyover turning into Jalan Bangsar. Things were not good because by now, the whole stretch was quickly filled up with cars and morons cuting into lanes. Because my Satria's air-cond is not workng, my windows were misted all over and I had to keep wiping the windscreen every now and then. With the clouded windows and dark skies, I am effectively blind inside the car. And so, for more than two hours, I was in the car, slowly inching into Bangsar. And from there, I can witness the alrming buildup of the flood water on the road below. I was so bad, both sides of the traffic was kept to a crawl. By the time I came down from the ramp, most of the cars were apprehensive about continuing the new Bangsar River.

I had no choice but to continue, revving on first gear until I reached the Brickfields junction. And here, was the actual cause of the traffic jam which affects the opposite side of the road (going to KL). Traffic from Bangsar & Federal Highway merged with the traffic from Brickfields, etc and with the cops trying to "control" a non-moving traffic jam, it was a nightmare. Luckily, they waved me past and once cleared of the junction, the road to Bangsar was obscenely clear.

Sometimes, I wished I had taken up my Boss's offer to use his 4x4

The Road to Life

Sometimes, I do wonder, reflecting back on my Life, did I do things right and what would I have done if I had the chance to go back and do it again? After thinking much, the usual results are, I would like to go back as a Super-powered human and rearrange all reality to suit my fantasies.

Heh.

But sometimes, during the journey, I do see a lot of

mishaps and depending on the situation, I could get
a lot of benefits from it. But I would feel guilty as it
involves taking the advantage of the victims

Kristine's Art Age: 3++

She can now (confidently) write her own name!

The one with the most toys

Over the years, both girls have been given/bought a lot of soft toys. Most of which are usually "treasured" for a while before being forgotten while one or two would be their most valuable possession. But because these are soft toys which are usually hugged, lugged around, thrown about, stomped on, etc. they are very dirty within a very very short time.

And when is it their best friends? When it comes to bed time, or going out in the car. If the toys are not with them, then it would be pandemonium which ends up with us looking for the soft toys. And also, when it is time to get them washed. Imagine the chaos when we can't let them have it back while its in the washing machine or hung out to dry. Ha ha ha ha ha.

This is why Kaelynn looked so happy. Her favourite
is the one which Kristine rejected.

And this is why Kristine looked so unhappy. Most of
her toys which she "threw" away, now belongs to her
sister.

The mouse with no tail

I am not sure why I got this wireless mouse. My current mouse is still working fine. Maybe its because I am not satisfied with it since its a replacement to the previous fabulous mouse. So, it was there and then at JayaJusco, I saw this wireless mouse and for some inexplicable reason, I actually think that the price is reasonable.

Anyway, I actually have a slight fear about wireless mouse and pointers as I have used them more than five years ago. The problems ranges from big sized transmitter/receiver to inability to "lock"to the mouse to dead batteries to yeah, forgotten mouse. This one now uses the more "popular" 2.4GHz radio frequency which is shared by other devices such as DECT phones and wireless cameras. So far, it has been working wonderfully for the past 20 hours and I am starting
to feel comfortable with it.

The mouse come in three colours: Yellow, Metallic Red
and Carbon Fibre. I was hoping for Metalic Blue since I
am over Iron Man now and the Red is so not "me" at
the moment.

So, you have the mouse, the 1-inch wireless receiver
that looked like a USB thumbdrive, a 5cm installation
CD and a free McNair AA battery. The mouse uses
only 1.5volts and at 15mA, it claims to have a useful
time range between 3 to 6 months

After looking at the receiver, I was so tempted to get the
2GB thumbdrive for RM27 but better not as my budget
is very tight for this month since I just got my salary on
Thursday

The receiver is so small, you can actually stuff it up the
mouse's rear butt. Push the button and the mouse will
shit it out softly.

For almost the same price, I can get a bigger wired mouse.
So, there and then, I decided to risk it even if its a tad too
small for my hands. But after a while, the mouse feels OK
to me since I do not have to worry about cables anymore.
And this also solved some space issues in my carrying
case. But it also met my requirement of the side forward
and backward buttons I can use with my thumb, something
which I can not go without nowadays.

The new mouse (right) compared to the crap Samsung

An evening with the girls

Just moments before bedtime, Kristine and Kaelynn were fooling about in the bedroom. Kristine's new trick is to climb up the boxes, either sing a song, shout or read a book before jumping down on to the matresses below. Once I got over the shock, I began to take photos of them. Then I realised, my Nikon D50 does not have multiple exposures. Sill, it was fun to play with the speed and flash.

Both of them have been eyeing the
boxes for quite some time. Now I
know why.

So, they start with singing some songs
at the top of their lungs, or try to read
a book before doing the jump

Jumping 101:Step by step guide courtesy of Ms. Kristine

This is one of the better images of
Kristine jumping. The pink blur
behind her was the first flash taken
just a split second before the jump

Someone got too excited and stepped on a sharp object

No sane kid would do this type of stunts at night and so,
just to make sure, Mommy is checking for signs of brain
inside their skulls. None here, whatsoever, just wax.

And none here too. Very mysterious

Finally, Kaelynn got her own revenge for all the bad things
Kristine did to her. She jumped and sat on her elder sister
just when she was about to go to sleep....

I should have seen that coming.......

I was so excited about installing an ISDN line for my customer that I never realised I have overlooked some minor details. Prior to the installation, I have been running the "simulation" in my mind over and over again. And so, on that day, I was ready for the word, "Go".

Last week, my technicians have laid the necessary cabling and this week, it will be my turn. The ISDN interface card is ready and so is everything. We convinced them to go for ISDN because their normal analogue DID lines are always giving problems where power surge or lightning storms are concerned. Imagine the delay when we need to take the cards back for repair and so on.

Until I realised I have terminated the wrong type
of connectors! Horrors of horros and now, they
cannot test the ISDN until next week. Oops

The trip up North . . . Penang

We had to go up to Penang today to add two Digital phones and lay some cables. Originally, it was supposed to be a two-day trip, with us arriving in Penang yesterday (Monday). But because I felt that staying for the night would be a waste of resources, we decided to drive up to Penang at 0600 and finish or job on the same day.

Yeah, bright idea.

I was so tired the day before, driving up was really more of trying to keep myself awake on the roads. The same can be said for going back down again. And just my luck that my other technician was not talkative enough to keep me awake. I mean, a syllable or tow is just not enough. Still, we got the job done and by the time I reached home, it was past midnight.

What the .... Its midday and there is a huge trafic jam all the way
to Penang Island! Not only that, I had to pay RM12 instead of RM7
because we're driving a van instead of a car. If its a lorry, its RM25

We installed the system less than two years and its already
showing signs of environment damage. It was the same
reason we chnaged the system for them in the first
place. I think this year, I need to enforce them to
build the area into an air-conditioned room

Kristine's haircut

Kristine had her hair cut and although I specifically told my Wife not to chop off her long hair, I felt as if Kristine's hair has become shorter. . . still, I think we saved about RM10.

This is how she feels about her new haircut

Still, with her bangs cut like that, she
looked more like a China doll.

Building my PSU Pt 1

Today marks the first day of the two weeks school holidays in Malaysia. Which is a good thing because, not only does my Wife get to sleep in late, I get to go to the office early. Ha ha ha. Actually, there is a reason why I needed to go to the office as early as possible. I find it quite impossible to do my own projects even at home now. What with the increasing workload and all, its quite frustrating for me not being able to do anything to help bring in more income.

But there is also some things I need to get done as well. One of the things would be a power supply. The power supply I had built in my University days is getting on and although it can still be used, I would need another but with a more exact voltage. My dream power supply would be that RM380 version which I saw at Pasar Road (which features votages up to 30 volts and variable current output) but until then, I have to find an alternative. And this is where the PC power supply comes in. It will give me 12 volts, 5 volts and 3.3 volts when I need it. And if I want to, I can make a circuit to give me other voltages such as the 6volts and 9 volt ranges not in the power supply.

So, the first thing is, to get a PC power supply, which is not a problem since I have salvaged quite a few. Then the first problem would be in how to make a case for the power supply since it would look weird sitting there on its own. Anyway, while I had the time to think this morning, I decided to swap its internal fan with a Ah Beng version (which has green LEDs) which I bought eight years ago.

I came in 45 minutes early. Just in time to warm up
the soldering iron, remove the old fan and solder in
the new one before the technicians come in.

Saturday morning.............

Ah......... I am all alone in the office. Boss won't be back for another half hour while my tow teams are out on service calls. Just me and my Lemonade. Yeah, might as well use up yesterday's Ipoh trip's meal allowance....

Felton 2L container: RM12.90
2L of Lemonade: RM5.60
Remaining cash RM2.10

The trip up North ... Ipoh

Today, we are going up to Ipoh for a system relocation. This is because the customer is moving out of their current site and renting another place while the original site is being demolished. We received the go-ahead from the main contractor who requested us to start work today. The job is to dismantle the PABX system, bring it to the new site and set it up again but with new programming. So, we estimated this to be a two day job.

And once we had everything packed, we're ready to go. And I got my technician to drive the van since he got his license last week. It would be a good oppotunity for him to get the feel of the van. Although the speed limit for a commercial van was 90Km/H, he pushed it another 20Km/H more. As a result, we arrived in good time (while I pray he did not get any traffic summons on the way). As soon as we stepped out, we introduced ourselves to the customer informing them about the day's work. As we are going to take the system down, we had to inform them before hand. But what we got was a shock as they were not moving at all! He was kind enough to bring us to the new site which looked like this:

Yep. it is not ready for another month.

Even the site for the PABX is not ready

Everywhere, people were doing their job

But because of out job scope, we cannot more the system until the day before they are going to shift. So, this means, our trip was for naught. When I called the Main con up, he told me that the client did not tell him about the shifting. I was not convinced because I know he is new at this. So, in the end, this means our company lost RM220 for this trip.

In the meantime, my technician is enjoying "his" van
Sitting next to him while he is driving is like a father
teaching his kid how to drive (well, go ask YOUR Dad)

Still, because we won't be eating much, I used my meal
allowance to get a MIC Transformer for RM9.90 which
would usually sell for about four times months ago...
I could still search for the original but they're not on
the shelves anymore.

Yeah, he's very cute but I know, if I
open him up, I can put some flashing
LEDs in there if I wanted to.

Another plus point is that the plastic quality and
moulding is very high quality unlike your normal

MIC toys. Well, next month we're going up there
again, and so, I hope these toys are still on sale...