On the Eve of 2009

Today is 31st of December, 2008 which by now, everyone knows its the Eve of another exciting year. So, we will now do what we will always do:

We pull some cables and scare all the birds away, disturbing
anyone who looks out of the window

Noisily, we make holes in the wall, and wait
for debris to dirty the floor

We point at things and take photos for no reason

And we have our New Year's Eve Dinner

by having the most expensive and
delicious meal we could ever find
and eating it in the customer's office

Happy New Year!

(And we rush back 8 minutes before the Fireworks start)

Fireworks = Wife Scold me kau-kau for working like a Dog. Woof! Woof!

Loctor's IR Pen Part I

Gosh! Its more than a week now and I still have not made the pen for Loctor. Its a very simple device, actually. All you need is a switch, an IR LED, battery and a current limiting resistor. The hard part is to look for a nice little pen to house it all in. Needless to say, that pen would be "sacrificed" for this project.

And I have not located a perfect pen until today, when we went to Cziplee Bookstore. This a RM4.30 (which my Wife said was expensive) Whiteboard Marker which retracts like a retractable ball-point pen. All week I was looking for a thinner pen but alas, although I found it in Prai, its not easy to fit in a push-button switch since the pen is made of aluminium and if I try to do it, I would have broken it instead. Actually, to over come the switch problem, I could fit in a very sensitve push-button switch in front of the IR LED so when you start to write on it, the pressure you exert by pushing the pen down would have closed the circuit. But then, therewould arise other problems namely the LED would wear itself out on the surface which acts like sandpaper. Or it might affect the surface instead.

So, to overcome this problem, I would therefore need a transparent teflon 6mm sphere to put in front of the LED. Then, reality hit me. Where the heck am I going to find such thing, even if it exists in such a short time?

So, the only thing I can do is to gut a pen and stuff everything in it.....

Why I chose this market apart from the rectractable gimmick?
Well, the opening is ideal for the 5mm LED which I originally &
stubbornly want to keep the pen's retractable feature.Problem
is, the power to the LED would then have to be those itty bitty
watch batteries, which would last as long as a few hours, I think.

Dissecting the pen, you would have, from left to right, the slip, the
outer casing, the internal mechanism and lastly, the ink cartridge
itself. Yes, its refillable and now, I regret chosing this as sacrifice.
Ha ha ha ha!

Note that in the construction for this pen, there were no screws or even
glue. Everything sort of snaps into place. The black clip does two function
here. It sort of holds everything together and also acts as the locking
mechanism when you push the end.

Now we come to the interesting part; the innard which houses the ink
and also the tip.

Just to remove the ink cartridge, you have unscrew the cap which acts
as the holder and also to make sure its airtight too.

Now, the business end. See the small black round thing? Its a protective
cover for the tip. When you push the pen, it will twist open and the tip
will pop up.

See what happens when I push it? The cover swivels open

And now, the tip comes up. Cool or not?
They have to do this to prevent the ink in the tip from
drying out or there would be a lot of customer returns

In the next post, I will show you how I complete the pen (If I have the time, that is). Until then keep all your pens away from me, OK? Bwahahahahhahaa!

The trip down South ..... Seremban II

OK, so today, I need to go back again to the same customer as it is a standard procedure (for us) to be on standby after we do a system upgrade/installation. This is so that the customer can start using the phones straight away or in case they have changes in mind. Not only that, this would make the customer much more comfortable with us knowing that we're always there when they need us. And just last night, after coming back after midnight, I only had about less than five hours of sleep as it was exhausting trying to stick to the speed limit. Ha ha ha.

Its so nice to see traffic jam only on the opposite side!

OK, so the PABX is finished and so am I
So tired already but, there is another job
in Seremban too. I am heading there in
the afternoon after I wrap this up

An outing with the girls

By now, you would have guessed that we're the kind of people who love to go out. Well, there is a bit of truth in there but because we're tight on money, its the spending part which we do not like. But in Malaysia, once you go out, before you reach your destination, it already costs you money.

Thinking that today is a Public Holiday, I wanted to take them out to Pasar Road (my idea) and also a bookstore (Wife's idea). So, by the time we reached Pasar Road, we discovered most of the shops were closed. This is going to be a problem for me because I need to complete the IR Pen as requested by Loctor before this Saturday. And with so much work to do, its going to be a problem. I will explain the process in another post once I got the parts. Not wanting to waste the trip, we decided to pass by the wet market to pack some Lam Mee for lunch. Alas, they were closed too. And so, we ended up in the wet market itself where Wife needed to buy some vegetables. And when I say its a wet market, you can take my word for it. Somehow, Kristine got splattered with mud on the back of her legs and skirt. Haih

After the clean up, we decided to go to Bangsar's Lucky Garden for lunch instead but when the girls saw Pizza Hut, our plans changed. After that, its off to the bookshop nearby. I don't mean the Popular Bookshop or another the other bookshop, both in Bangsar Village but ther Cziplee Bookshop which I never knew existed. And we had a grand time in there. Choosing and buying pens, stickers and books for everyone. After that, I'm off to Seremban to continue my work as the contractor has completed the floor tiles by five in the evening. By the time I came back to KL, it was almost half-past one in the morning. And in a few hours time, I have to be there again. Haih

Both girls sharing a seat-belt

Everything was wet and so, I put them on top of the cement thingy

I was about to recompose but everyone around us scolded because
they girls were staring straight into the welding so I had to quickly
"escape" but not before reversing and stood on my Wife's feet

Kaelynn loved the Pizza at first but she
preferred the mushroom soup later on.
In the end, both of us had to "DBKL"
all the dishes and I feel worse than a pig

Then Kristine started making faces.Note the almost
fish-eye effect of the picture. No, not the eyes!

And Kaelynn followed suit

Kristine returned the gesture

Yeah, guess who won.

Opening our loot from the store, which is full of books,
stickers, CNY cards, colour pencils, pens, markers, etc.

This is mine; labels, an Artline Clix where the nib can be hidden
back into the pen, the 0.5mm pencil and a correction tape which
costs RM7.00. I should have bought it last year when I was less
than RM5.00 but when I went back to the shop, it was no more.

Oh, let me tell you about the 0.5mm pencil which costs RM9.40.
Its from Pentel and is called the Flexfit II. When I first saw it,
it was normal for me because there is this trend of putting silicon
tubes in pens and pencils for a better grip. But when I held it in
my hand, the feeling was so good that I wanted to have it. It
feels to comfortable to hold, write and sketch. Make me feel like
a different person and with confidence to boot.

If I hold it like this, it felt so nice! To retract the pencil
back into the body, you just press the clip.

MacDonalds Sonic Flying Disc

This was the toy I got for both Kristine and Kaelynn the other day. I think its a frisbee but it seemed to heavy to fly. But when I am free, I think I will play with the girls. The reason I got this was because right in the middle of the disc, there is an optical illusion. Sonic the Hedgehog seemed to be "floating" above the saucer.

I have seen this trick when I was in Singapore years ago. I was in some kind of a science centre and there was this round bowl with a small opening at the top. It was brightly lit and inside the bowl, it had a mirror-like surface. So, anything inside the bowl would see to be floating on top at the opening. Sort of like a 3D image.

When you put your finger on it, the image is still there but
you cannot touch it.

OK, here is another angle. You can see the image floating while
the original is below the saucer. And its turned the other way.

OK, Kit Kat's finished

Time to continue with posting new blogs since I can't find
any Kit Kats but these ultra sweet shockolates

The trip down South ..... Seremban

Yeah, I know, at this rate, I am going to collapse. The work is piling up non-stop and we just can't seem to get our breaths back. Today, or should I say, for the few days, we would all be in Seremban. And I just hope I won't miss zybisko14's Wedding this coming Saturday. The way I see it, I could be working there, slip out of the customer's place, go into the Wedding and then slip back out again. Ha ha ha ha!

Anyway, there are two simultaneous jobs here. One would be to install a CCTV system and the other is to upgrade the PABX system on another site. And I would be responsible for both sites. Haih.

Because the contractor won't be able to finish breaking and re-doing the floor tiles until Monday evening, I cannot do much until then. I would need to go back on Monday (Public Holiday) to make sure all the phone points and credit card terminals I have done earlier are still working once they re-positioned the tables again. Haih and double Haih.

A quick grab for the Orange McFlurry before going to Seremban.
I would not reccomend this McFlurry because the orange reminds
me of the Sunquick cordial which tasted unlike anything orange.

Just after Kajang, there is a long traffic jam all the way to Seremban. By
then, all the cars disappeared. Maybe they're all going to Port Dickson.
The jam along wasted me about an hour. We're literally crawling there
and I was too tired to take shots of cars using the Emergency Lane. Yes,
even the Singaporeans are doing it too.

This is the first site. I followed my techs up the rickety ladder and up to
the roof. Then I discovered I'm too chicken to climb down again, so I had
to carefully climb across other roofs to get down. Maybe because its that
I am starting to get conscious about my gaining weight again, which makes
me very insecure about my own physical ability.

Once that's fnished, I went to the other site, which I have to do this all
on my own. Luckily, my Boss was there to enforce the techs to do all the
cabling as they were too tired and some more, since Monday is a Public
Holiday, they wanted to go home. By then, my work was already cut out
for me. halfway working, they other crew came in and started to work on
the floor tiles. They created a lot of noise and dust. Luckily, I have my
MP3 cassette with me. But no face mask. Must get them on the next trip.

While working, I realised that I completely forgot about the dust until I
went to work on the Notebook. See the layer of white dust? Only the
small smudge on the spacebar tells you how dirty it became.

This is the shot I took before I started work

This is the shot I took after midnight. By then,
the cables are all tidied up, connected and new
equipment installed. Yeah, its tiring. If not for
the techs earlier, I would have needed another
100 minutes or so.

Too exhausted to carry on anymore, so I stopped briefly before
the Toll. Took some pictures to relax my mind as it was feeling
very tense.

So, this is how they did it. Those "Ali and Aminah" wedding
arrow signs. They just parked the car in the middle, got out
and then hammered the signs on the road shoulder.

The Beautiful Girl

It just happened there and then. What she did was almost instantaneous, as if its already encoded into her. As if its a natural born thing for her (and all girls?). Was it the powdered milk or our genes? I am not even sure this time since she is not holding any guns or Tricorders. Anyway, it started when I dressed her in her pyjamas during bedtime. And then she pulled it high up...........

Now, her pyjamas becomes her new night gown

At least she knows how to take care of herself

Oh, I tell you, she can really pose!

Christmas Day at The Pavillion

So, for Christmas, since we do not partake in any of the celebrations, we decided to head down to The Pavillion. On the way, the Federal Highway was jammed as everyone was tying their best to get into Mid-Valley. By the time we reached the area, it was already starting to fill up with cars and people. Luckily, we managed to get a parking spot in Low Yatt in under 10 minutes as we spotted a group about to leave after buying a lot of computer equipment.

The reason we're going there is because we needed to finish the Parkson cash vouchers before the year is over. And this time, its going to be used to replace my wallet and belt which both have seen better days. So, after our lunch at the packed Food Republic, we started to look for a proper wallet. I was teanmpted with the Camel wallets but once convinced the bored salesboy to place it in my grubby hands, the wallet felt disappointingly useless. Right now, we all know that apart from Clowns, Kristine is afraid of Santa Clause too.

Seating at the Food Republic was very crowded. It
did not help with a single person "chope-ing" whole
sets of tables and chairs. So, Kristine had to sit on
my lap as the idea of stacking chairs at this time is
a bit selfish.

"Daddy, I only want this much of chicken"
And so, I had to cut tiny chunks of breaded
chicken for her.

After the meals, Momy got them some blackcurrent drinks

Kristine posing for the camera

And again, at the Parkson entrance

And lastly, at the Pavillion Entrance
We just do not know how she get the
ideas for these poses. Maybe its in
the genes.

Yep, by this time, about six in the evening, traffic was
gridlocked. And more people entering the Pavillion

Took a shot at this guy because of the designs on his shirt
which looked like tiny blood streaks all over.

And so, to complete the day's journey, we had dinner at the
Esquire Kitchen where the food tasted worse than the one
in Old Klang Road. And the waitresses were not that "chou
lou" anymore. Haih. This is bad for business. Ha ha ha ha!

And what a surprise! Krsitine gets to meet another of her cousin,
Brandon from Ipoh, who is just a few months older than Kaelynn.
And so, we got them to shake hands

Which Kristine regretted afterwards; shaking hands with a boy