The meeting of John III

And so, on the night before the night of the night before the night of Christmas, we had one more dinner hosted by John and 5th SIL for all the family before he goes back to celebrate Christmas with his own family. Well, not from my Family unless its a Wedding (cough cough). This time, instead of the Unique Seafood in PJ, the venue has been changed to Crystal Palm in Sentul. A room was booked and with the Karaoke set in there, it was a wild time.

And so, here is the proper shot of John & 5th SIL.
They kept saying I'm a pro due to the Nikon D50
DSLR I was carrying. What they did not know, is
yes, I am a Professional . . . at taking crap photos.
And this one took me four tries. But thanks to the
50mm lens, I am saved. I told everyone there I
am hopeless but they would not believe me.
Wait till I get Loctor and zybisko to back me up.

The food there is quite alright but we're not
going to complain much since this is a happy
occasion. Moreover, this restaurant happens
to be a friends of one of the BIL anyway. The
only complain was that Wife would not let me
take any alcohol........ heh.

This is the RM28.00 double-boiled soup.
Its delicious and I got two helpings since
the girls do not want them.

I forgot this dish but its something to
do with tofu, pumpkin and otak-otak.
I am the only one who loves it .....

And so, when we're half-fool, someone went
to start the karaoke machine and before you
know it, some were trying to sing. Cousins
against cousins, Moms against daughters,
and so on. But there were some chinese songs
I used to listen when I was young and do not
know the title. I should have installed the
music recognition software on my Nokia 5800
since the restaurant has free Wi-Fi.

Just in case you missed the shot
and too lazy to scroll back up,
here is another one of John and
5th SIL. I hate the crazy lighting
in there which screws up a lot of
setting and I do not want to use
the flash too. Hem hem.

Finally, John also gave it a go with his personal
rendition of (I forgot that song).

Once Kristine and Kaelynn got hold of the
microphone, everything went nuts.

Finally, when everyone calmed down, it was time
for John to give his speech to his future MIL. And
just in case, he got Joy to be his translator in case
he said something wrong like *ahem* Wedding
dates or the Vulcan pon-farr techniques.

And MIL was impressed. I liked
this shot. Only if she had a better
chair and some lighting from the
back........

Well, by the time we finished, it was slightly after ten at night. And the funny thing was, although I got us lost, we were still the first to arrive. And not only that, we were the last to leave as well. Still, everyone was happy and more importantly, 5ht SIL would be happiest of all.

Double yellow lines

Years ago, I noticed that in some rally cars, they have coloured tapes stuck to the top of the steering wheel. When I asked Ivan and YS Khong about it, its to tell you the position of the wheel in an instant because in the rally, every second counts. Not only that, it also tell you how many turns you have taken at the steering wheel. Now, although its basic and trivial information, I have encountered this once or twice when I turned too much and forgot the orientation of the steering. At that time, I do not need to know how many turns since this is a small Eifra steering (given by Roy before he traded in his 1.5 Wira for a 1.6Waja). I just need to know which is the "right side Up".

Took me three years to have the original red cloth tape replaced since these tapes were selling at about RM3.20 at that time. Now, the red tape has dried up, all the black hardened spots are actually grime from my hands years ago, and I could actually contract some deadly disease just by looking at it. Luckily for me, these tapes are now selling for only RM1.00 per 1" roll, and it can last me quite some time, provided I only use it for the steering and nothing else. The yellow tapes are also a cheaper alternative to painting lines on an industrial floor which I have seen at a customer's place.

Well, this time, I am using yellow as its easier to
to see compared to red. The bright yellow colours
basically have two functions; to tell me that I am
driving straight and also when its dirty, tells you
when to change to fresh set of tapes. Ha ha ha

How to mount without screwing

Hokay. This is an easy-peasy info for you. We have a customer who wants to mount a DoorPhone (you know, those that goes "ding-dong"when you press a button followed by a curious voice asking, "Who's there") onto a metal surface. From experience, knowing this customer, there could be a slight problem if their Boss decides to change his mind later.

Yes, you all very well know what kind of crap might happen then. And so, we decided to use a more surface-friendly and non-violent approach. Moreover, since the metal surface finish of the door pillar was so beautiful, it would be a total jack-ass move to be the first party to screw it up completely. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where the double-sided tape comes in.

First thing you have to do is to cut a separate piece
of transparent acrylic that matches the size of the
door phone. A 2mm sheet will do. And how did I
cut the pieces without an acrylic scriber? Shhh....

Obviously, as you can see here, the first attempt
by my tech using a double-sided foam tape didn't
work. Although the foam provided the necessary
thickness, its just too weak. Plus, I have explained
to them weeks before, how to approach the problem
but from the traces of the removed foam tape, I
guessed they have all forgotten all about it. Sigh.

And so, with the acrylic sheet cut and then
mounted on the back of the doorphone
frame, we're all set.

BTW, what yo saw above was the second sheet
as the first one cracked when I screwed too
much. In this delicate situation, patience is
very important. And light trigger finger too.

And the final touch, the super sticky RM18.00
clear acrylic double-sided tape. Yeah, I forgot
to bring mine and had to buy some. Heh.
Now, all we have to do is to drill a small
hole for the wires, peel the tape and
voila! Problem solved!