Let's go! Let's go!

OK, the Notebook's back, sort of. I sent it to my friend T, who promised to look at it and collect it the next day. However, in my rush, I forgot to call on him and so, my other friend, J, being his usual self, made things a bit hard for me.

Me: Hey, J, I've come for my Notebook
J: Yeah? Whom did you give it to?
Me: T, la. I gave it to him yesterday and he told me to collect it today.
J: Well, I don't know where he kept it.
Me: Do you know who repaired it, then?
J: No
Me: Can you look for it please?
J: No
Me: My wife needs to write questions tonight.
J: OK, give me a moment
Me: ......... (slap forehead)

Anyway, I got it from him minutes later.........
J: The Notebooks, OK. It can boot up and all, just a critical battery warning.
Me: Thanks. By the way, you have a spare power supply for it?
J: No
Me: Anyway I can get one?
J: No
Me: ..........

And so, I have to find one myself. No point digging it from him as its useless. I could go all the way to Low Yatt and pay about RM200.00 or less but since my September salary is still not in, this is not an option. Even if it is, I am not going to pay for it. In the meantime, I have ordered a custom power supply which would arrive on Wednesday. Until then, this is the only solution:

Not sure if my Boss was impressed or amused when
he found out I was using a scrapped PC PSU for the
Notebook. I had told him directly this is the only
solution until MY salary is out next week. Yes, even
if its being fed 3volts less, its running (barely) but
the speed is crawling. Still, its better than nothing.
Yes, my customer might laugh at me (and Horrors
or Horrors, might even give the impression that our
Company is going bankrupt or something)

Anyway, give me sometime to update the blog as I think there are a lot of belated posts.

Appraising Grace

Ita that time again, where we do it twice a yea. However, (just like the last time) we're months late. These are one of those things which we have brought ovr from our ex-Company, which is the Staff Appraisal. Halfway thro=oug (OH, I fucking hate this Lenovo Y430 keyboard, its making m tyoe like crap)

Anyway, afway through the apraisal, my Boss said, "Youkno, I thknk this appraisial is getting kind of useless ad going nowere." I likd to agree but seeing it from another point of view, i told him no to stop it.

The objective of the Appraisal is to gauge the staff's development every six months, I said. And the apraisal is also a brige between he mansgemen an the staff. And the ae ways of seeing the apraisal from different level of staff. fo the staff, is he is ositive, ths apraiasal is a way of indirectly charting his career fr the next siz months. And i he is smart ebough, h could oick up clues on ow eis standign in the copany. But n the other had, a bad staff just sees it s a from for saary increment an tey woudl et pssed off when the marks are ba. For a good Boss, he appraisal is a form o tell him ho his staff ad developed ove the last siz moths. he can hen jutstify any promotion or salary rase. Bu for a bad Boss, the apsprialsa is just anoter time-wastin paper owrk.

Stil, there a re a few arts to the appraials form. The first is to reflect how the staff thik of themsevle in the comany. The ssecond part s how the copany thinks of them. The thisrd art is a form of coomunicatin between the tow party to see where they stamd. The first and second parts are usually shcking to the staff, as it sot of brings them back to reality. And he final part is to rcommend mprovements to for the staf.

So, thw apprasa; must continie and mybe just fine-tune it a bit fo without it, its pointless. Indirectlt, it is also to elp the satff to grw i the copany.

Thanks, TNB

Just a short one. Yesterday morning, our electricity supply shot up from 240v to 415v. Yes, a lot of equipment got fried including my Notebook. Which means I cannot upload photos for the blog.

Just hang in there while we're going to visit TNB on Monday and then take further action. And so, yes, this blog will be on hold for the moment until I get my Notebook sorted out. I can't just install stuff on my Dad's (and the only Internet enabled and surviving) PC.

Joke

This is so sexist but I loved it.


Brilliant Joke, for men.
Women : Just read the first half!

A Woman was out golfing one day when she hit the ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap.. The frog said to her, "If you release me from this trap, I will grant you three wishes." The woman freed the frog, and the frog said, Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes.

Whatever you wish for, your husband will get times ten!" The woman said, "That's okay." For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The frog warned her, "You do realize that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis whom women will flock to". The woman replied, "That's okay, because I will be the most beautiful Woman and he will have eyes only for me." So, KAZAM-she's the most beautiful Woman in the world! For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world. The frog said, "That will make your husband the richest man in the world. And he will be ten times richer than you. " The woman said, "That's okay,
because what's mine is his and what's his is mine." So, KAZAM-she's the richest woman in the world! The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, "I'd like a mild heart attack."

Moral of the story: Women are clever. Don't mess with them.

Attention female readers: This is the end of the joke for you. Stop here and continue feeling good.

Male readers: Please scroll down.



































The man had a heart attack ten times milder than his wife!!!

Moral of the story: Women are really dumb but think they're really smart. Let them continue to think that way and just enjoy the show.

PS: If you are a woman and are still reading this; it only goes to show that women never listen!!!

Forward this to all the guys for a good laugh, and to all the ladies who have a good sense of humor.

Betrayed

Ever wonder what those weird noises cats make at night? Yep, they're arguing and this one, was caught on camera......

Begedil (Potato cakes?)

Begedil is a potato dish which you sort of skin it, mash it up, add some ingredients, roll it into a small bun and deep fry it. And I loved it. I did not know much about this until two years ago. And everytime, if I happen to be eating at a Malay stall, I would definitely look for it. And so it was that during our trip to Mydin last weekend, we decided to try these mini begedils after getting a sample (OK, seven samples) from the kind lady cooking at the corner.

These mini begedils are about less than an inch in
diameter. Its a bit soft which is weird as when the
Demo lady took hers out of the oven, it was crunchy.

Yes, Mydin does support a lot of local products. Which
is good, compared to others. But then again, they have
their own unique customers who do not go to these
other markets.

And so, we dutifully followed the instructions.
And we even set the temperature to 150ºC
and set it to a longer 15 minutes.

Although its soft like mashed potatoes,
everyone loved it. But for the price we
paid, its a bit stiff. I think I might buy
another when my pay comes it.
Soon. I hope.

Waterproof camera II

Another camera's gone. I got my guys to go back there today and told the customer the bad news. Unfortunately, they would not let us "sacrifice" any cameras to replace the faulty ones as all cameras were very important to them. If I happened to be there, I would very much like to say, "I told you so". This was because during our long discussions, I told them to get spare units just in case. But no, they bought exact units. And during installations, they were four units short. Actually, its really not our problem since they bought the cameras themselves and only need us to install and test them. But when it comes to a job, we have to be thorough.

Anyway, they have replied my E-Mail and the replacements should be arriving next week, plus spare units. Heh.

Here we go. The second camera is also affected.
So Boys and Girls, never point your butts to the
Sky or you'll be sorry. Very very sorry. Ha! ha!

See the gunk on the glass? I did not get the
chance to take this photo yesterday. Its so
weird what a little rain can do to the CCTV.

As usual, the water seeped through and flowed
through the wires and onto the circuit board.

This time, its worse. You can see the serious
rusting on the soldering.

And more than half the infra-red LEDs looked
bad. Well, I'll clean them up again as usual, and
let it dry for a bit. While I go about my work.

Here is another shot of the butt. You can see
some of the water trapped between the hole
and the tie-wrap. Other Made in China cams
have rubber bungs but not this one. This is
the real reason why we stuff them into the
weatherproof casings.

After the electronics have dried a bit, I tested
the camera. Seems the infra-red is ok on this
one. Looks like we saved it just in time. But as
for the real camera, I'll have to wait till its dry

My Boss gave us an earful about climbing
out of the windows. Then he showed us
the safety harness whic we should have
used. Apparently, the other tech knows
about it but did not tell the whole crew.

Waterproof camera

Yesterday, late evening, my techs came back with a faulty CCTV camera. The customer complained that the image from the camera is very blur and could not see much. And so, on the way back from a nearby customer, I got my techs to dismantle the camera back to the office for a look-see....

When I opened the camera up, I noticed that the rear end (SOMEONE called it the "bantat" this morning, which is wrong as it should be "buntut") where the cables come out, has no waterproofing whatsoever. And the nut (no, not me) was loose. AS the camera was pointing downwards, rainwater entered from there and flowed through the power cables, onto the electronics and then to the glass.

Well, here we go. The reason why the image is
so blur is that there is water inside the camera.

Opening it up is like disarming one
of those fancy bombs you see on
the TV series. And it looked the
part too. Nice. I wonder if I can
keep this camera.......... ha ha ha!

There is crap (OK, rust) on the infra-red circuit
board. The water used the power cables (red,
yellow, black) to flow downwards to the front
of the camera, which is the protective glass.

Some of the infra-red LEDs are corroded. Even when
I have cleaned the light sensor (green), it does not
work. So, this camera is blind at night.

This morning, after leaving it to dry overnight,
the camera still works but not as good as before.

We can repair it but Boss said not to since we do not know the price they bought it from and they could turn around and say, "We do not want to pay you since the price of the camera is lower.". After we have done the repairing, I mean. So, its time to write to the customer, telling them in a nice way that, "Dear sir, the CCTV camera you bought from China and instructed us how to focus it, is screwed. Thank you and have a nice day."

Bump in the Head

After rushing back home and greeted my relatives, I was shocked to see a bandage on Kristine's head. Apparently, she fell while rehearsing for the concert in school. Not sure of the details but Wife said her socks were slippery and so was her shoes or something like that. Need to ask more tomorrow as everyone was flat out by 2230.

Why?

Because Erika had dengue fever and had been admitted to the Hospital. So, I drove all the relatives there and also had fun comparing the Garmin nuvi 255 against my Nokia 5800 (which always try to be too smart and give opposite directions). Yeah, the Garmin is more accurate.

Anyway, Erika was so ill that she had to be helped to move about. But luckily, babe was there. And when she saw me, she tried to greet me but I told her not so speak (in case she blurted out our secrets in delirium ..... not). I am not sure about her condition but the way my Uncle said it, its very serious. And DBKL told her she is the fourth victim in the whole Condo. Me, I am more worried about the medical fees as they Hospital is build like a 5-star Hotel, with valet parking, nice toilets, lounges, etc. The only difference is that they do not have buffet dining and a jazz lounge.

Oh, the flat out part? We came back home and joined with my parent and all for a dinner which took ages to reach us. By the time it came, I think we're all stuffed with satay (which came in less than 8 minutes.) Oh, and that I had to carry Kaelynn all the way to the shops after I realised she did not wear her shoes.

Here is the big big bandage.
Look very serious except
that she is smiling like nothing
happened. Maybe its the bump.

Thank goodness it was not a cut or anything,
just a bruise.

Furikake Fudging

Furikake (振り掛け/ふりかけ^?) is a dry Japanese condiment^[1] meant to be sprinkled on top of rice. It typically consists of a mixture of dried and ground fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt, and monosodium glutamate. Other flavorful ingredients such as katsuobushi (sometimes indicated on the package as bonito), salmon, shiso, egg, powdered miso, vegetables, etc. are often added to the mix.

Furikake is often brightly colored and flaky. It can have a slight fish or seafood flavoring, and is sometimes spicy. It can be used in japanese cooking for pickling foods for onigiri, or rice balls.

Outside Japan furikake can be found in most Asian groceries, near the katsuobushi; or in the ethnic food aisle of some major supermarkets.

Well, that was the description I got from Wikpedia when I was looking for something to sprinkle on rice. Ha ha.

Anyway, Wife got this for us some time ago, to try on the plain rice. And I must say, its delicious. However, the price for that small packet is, to me, exhorbitant. And so, I decided to make my own version. Well, that was years ago. This time, I really need to make it and so, on our latest shopping trip, I bough a can of tuna to start with. The reason is that the powdered soup is about to finish and roughly, by next month or so, it would be gone. And so, I need to find alternatives to the powdered soup for my oats.

The Chicken branded the tuna as flakey.

And wow..... such wonderful aroma!
Must stop myself eating it right now.

OK, so, I need to drain all the excess water from the
tuna and this was the best solution I could think of. I
pressed them hard against the strainer. I could go
and toast it if I wanted to but I at the end, it will be
toast anyway. I just needed dry tuna. Drying under
the Sun is also not a good idea since there are dust
and cats and birds to worry about. After that, use
a fork to flake the tuna finely.

While its being dried, I decided to use half a clove
of garlic and one big onion. Then I saw this weird
knife and decided to mash everything inside the
pot. I cannot blend it as it would be too fine. If
you love garlic, you do not have to chop it too
fine. Maybe the next time, I would toast them
instead. But no deep frying, OK?

Use about one tablespoon of oil to fry the garlic and
onions until aromatic. You don't want it to be so
thoroughly cooked.

Bring the flaked tuna into a pot and then add one
teaspoon each of salt, chicken stock, that RM5.49
Japanese chili powder, and some sprinkle of the
Black Pepper Ajishio. Add the fried garlic and
onions and mix them all up.

Over a small fire, spread the mixture onto a non
stick pan and fry them. The object here is to get
the mixture as dry as possible. Once you see some
dark brown patches, its almost ready. I forgot to
time it but its roughly time taken to wash two plates,
a fork, a cup and a knife, while pouring myself a
cup of water and drinking it two-thirds.

Once you have taken the mixture out, leave it to
cool off in case you decided to hold the pan with
your bare hands. Now, take about 12 small packs
of seaweed and roll them as if you are rolling
plasticene in Kindergarten. We want the seaweed
to be in flakes but not too fine. The big ones tend to
clump the mixture later on. If you use less than
12 packs, then you can eat the remainder.

Add the seaweed flakes into the mixture and mix
well with a dry tablespoon heated to about 30ºC.

Spread the mixture thinly and placed under the over
for 10 minutes at 130ºC, occasionally turning it to
prevent burnt parts which by coincidence, is inedible

If everything is right, this is how it would look
like. In other words, it would look a lot less like
what a Furikake but more on mutated chicken
floss. Oh, if you eat it just like that, it will taste
very sour, sweet and bliss at the same time. So
you will need to sprinkle very little on bread or
rice.

Its still damp, my Wife said, And I guess it passed
the edible test since she did not gag, choke, roll her
eyes upward and/or fainted on the floor right away.

And here it is, on my morning oats. I must keep
them refrigerated in case I forget to finish them
and they turn grey or other obnoxious colours.

I am not sure what to call it anymore, it should be Furikake. It could be tuna floss too. Or maybe, I shall call it Furifloss. Either one can be used to add to your rice/porridge/oats/bread/pasta/french fries, anyway.

But when I get the chance to try another, I would definitely add more chili since the Japanese Chili pepper is not working. Maybe I should have bought cayenne pepper instead. Not only that, I might need to deep fry some mustard seeds (biji sawi). This time though, I might have to cut down on the salt and up the garlic. Perhaps one day, I will try with macademia, flaxseed, almonds and other nuts to get a richer mix. But then, this might even be a meal in itself already.

Opening the PKD Snub Blaster

OK, I was planning to get it open for a long time. But because my girls were having too much fun with it, I was out of luck. Not only that, my Wife hates the girls playing with the guns. And anyway, after much waiting, I got my chance. Or rather, by chance. Because someone broke it and quietly hid the gun away until I stumbled onto it. Well what has been done, has been done. No point spilling more spilt milk (ha ha).

So, what this toy does is, when you pull the trigger, the "bullets" inside the chamber would glow and spin. At the same time, you will hear those machine gun noises. However, I am not sure how to activate it but there is the occasion reloading sound which comes on randomly. If you're quick on the trigger, you can do single shots.

This is a PKD Snub Blaster which has 10 rounds
And its retailing for RM7.50 a year ago. Now, its
gone and the shopkeeper told me never to come
back. Because I kept asking for more. Anyway,
like most Chinese stuff, this could be the basic
model which they would add moving barrels, a
different grip design and so on. I believe the
electronics would be the same, maybe some
would use bulbs instead of LEDs or have
different LED colours.

And this is the broken trigger.
I am not sure why Blogger so
love to turn my pictures about.

First, we take out the grip, which comprises
of two screws. Removing them gave me the
three black pieces. As the grip area is still
intact, you can custom make your own set
of grips. Wrapping torn cloth would be nice.

After more screwing around, I finally got the two
pieces open. Here, you can see how simple the
switch it, which is just a small spring/lever. The
tiny black rods can be replaced. But not now.

So, this is the picture on how the gun works;
A circuit board, a motor, a speaker and some
LEDs. That's it.

But the idea is to retain the speaker, remove the
motor and the change the LEDs to 1Watt.......

Oh, you might not notice it but there is a small weight
placed inside the bullet chamber. This is to vibrate
the gun when the trigger is pulled.

But not now. Once I have some proper sound chips, then I can start to toy around with it. But I suspect, it must need some metal weights to make it feel convincing la. Plus the plastic is so soft and brittle too.

Nokia OVI ver 2

It sucks, man. Took me the whole day to download the
bloody thing and then gives me this crap. Had to remove
it and look for the DVD-ROM to get back the old version.

Shopping at Mydin

And so, on Deepavali day, we discovered one very important thing that day: I do not need to go to work. And after much rejoicing (because we joiced earlier) we decided to spend some time going shopping at Mydin at Subang USJ. This was for Kristine's costume which her school is going to have some kind of concert in November.

Boy. All I can say, is, going shopping in a crowded place with two kids is very very exhausting.

While Kristine was trying on her clothes, Kaelynn
was busy with her corn-in-a-cup

And so, for less than RM40.00, she got
a full denim clothes and jeans, plus a
pair of black tights.

Erm, after this display, I think
I am going to lock her inside the
house until she's 40 or so. Safer
for other people on the streets.I
think no one likes a female
flasher. Ha ha

Finally, when she calmed down....

Here we go, again

No wonder I couldn't pay for
petrol for my Wife's car. I'm
hope to get paid soon. I am
such a stupid crab. Its 17th
already, dammit.

Fire Wolf

Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Firewolf is now available at Mydin USJ. For those who are not familiar with the Firewolf, its a very popular TV Series from the 80's. The Firewolf is a High Tech Military Helicopter piloted by the ultra suave and hermit, Strangefellow Horck. He is aided by his older mentor Dominion Suntinni, who is always suspiciously cheerful. The series takes the Airwolf crew on various secret missions which always involves the ever popular espionage themes.

In seasons two and three, the latest member, Catlining joined the crew to make the whole series more action orientated and move away from the Cold War. This decision from CBS was so popular that the series was told not to come back after the third season. However, the series was rescued for Season four where the original crews were also told not to come back. And so, we, as the viewer, decided not to go back too.

With the extreme heavy budget for every episode, viewers can enjoy the various dark and moody themes of the series and most importantly, the battles in the skies. Don't worry if you missed last week's episode because you will know that the good guys always win and most of the battles are from stock footage, i.e. planes get shot by yellow glowing missiles. The Airwolf's main weapons are the concealed machine guns which have fires coming out from the barrels and also that ultra-cool lighted yellow missiles which flies at above Mach1 speeds. And as for defense, the indispensable farts to thwart off enemy missiles.

If you're interested in reading more of this, you can go to here.

And now, for RM130.00, you can be the Horck fella
minus the Cello.

All the details have been beautifully reconstructed
by the souless manufacturing machines from China.

I was about to go for it except that the tail-end did not
look too good. Oh, and because I have only RM1.53 left.

Apologies to my Neighbours

Dear Neighbours,

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Deepavali even though I don't even know who the hell you are. Secondly, I would also like to apologise for the screams of my daughters running around naked on the balcony moments ago.

You see, we had to take their clothes off so that my Wife could bathe them. But due to the mistake on my part, I forgot to lock the grill leading to the balcony. And so, they ran out screaming about. I am sure I heard some moans and curses somewhere because it is easy for everyone to look at the source of the screams. And I am sure, in a few minutes time, some ambulance would be coming to assist those who have either suffered a heart attack or fainted.

So once again, I am very sorry what what has transpired.




And for those who took pictures, I hope your CCD element would crack into thousands of pieces. And for those who were cursing, back at you too.