View from below

Everyday, I see people using this magnifier
to check on print quality. I wonder what would
be the case if the prints are alive and decided
to look up.........

Yeah, enlarge this a trillion times..........

Dumb drive

Don't know what's happening to me lately. Must be
the stress of the Sales. I usually carry two thumb-
drives. And just this morning, I grabbed a red AA
battery instead of a blue 4GB Kingston. Must be
the Phaser project that was affecting me.

The Lesson of Hotness

Yes, I know, there is no such thing as 'hotness' but it was more or less, to me, fit this post. Kaelynn has started to try eating spicy or hot stuff. Maybe its because she saw us enjoying the chili sauce or the curries. Or maybe, she was just starting to like them (yeah!)

Anyhow, tonight was her second attempt in trying to eat hot stuff. It all started during dinner where there was a packet of curry mee. Since I neglected to tell everyone that my mouth ulcer's gone, I get to eat porridge every night (yum yum) and so, when I spotted the packet, I heated up the curry so that I could mix it into my porridge. As Kaelynn was having her dinner, I asked if she wanted some of the curry mee, which is actually mee hoon.....

And so, I get my curried porridge

While Kaelynn gets her curry mee hoon.
She is learning how to use a chopstick too.

Yum yum! She knows its hot but still, she
persevered.

Yep, she likes them curry mee hoon!
Note the wet nostrils........

Delicious, right?

All if a sudden, she grabs her water tumbler

And after almost finishing the whole bottle.....
Man, this girl got guts.

Pelaga no more

Not sure why it closed. When I was there, the telling signs were all over the place. Handful of customers, easy-going staff, no sign of management, etc. Not sure how happening it was at night but then again, most of the shops in these blocks were not doing that well either.

As I was passing by this area, I saw that
the Pelaga Park Kafe is no more. I used
to go to this place a lot in my previous
job as the customer was nearby. Loved
the dishes served there. Expensive but
to me, it was worth it.

The project that cannot be named

Due to the secretive nature of this project, I have no other choice but to encrypt it, as requested.


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blah, blah blah blah blah?
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blah blah blah. blah blah blah blah blah-
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Being the Strong, Silent type

You now, maybe I AM getting old. because you see, I was dealing with a customer on Friday and there were a lot of critical comments on our prototypes for their next year's product. They would say, its too short, its too long, to thin, etc.

Now, if I was the Engineer 15 years ago, I would have taken each comment and defended them with relish. Not only that, I would point out the errors in each of the customer's statement and rebounded them with interest. At the end of the day, I would be the winner. Yeah, man. Whether the customer feels it that way or not, its none of my business. I have successfully defended my product and showed my vast experience and intellect to the customer. Yeah! After that, the customers dread to see me and either let me have my own way or just try to come up with more attacks which usually failed.

But fast forward to now, I would just smile, nod and listen. I would even help them in reinforcing their statement. Why? Despite my urge to be the 'greater', I just kept my mouth shut. Call it experience if you must but I have seen so many of these customers before. And I know the results. So, there I was, being commented my prototype being too thin and they even used a ruler to measure their own current product against mine. And what do you know? I actually helped them measure it as well. And after all the hoo-haa, they realised, mine was actually thicker and with more content. By then, the would have also realised the situation and in order to let them get back some dignity, I just smiled and let them withdraw. And they became very nice to me after that. In fact, every time I meet them, they are eager to see me, and with a warm smile too.

See the difference?

At the end of the day, everyone came out the winner. And not only that, I got a nice handful of chocolates to take home for my girls. 15 years ago, I would have this feeling but by the time I wake up the next morning, its all forgotten and replaced with complaints from the previous meeting. See the difference? So, once again, its all thanks to one Manager, Mr. Brian Gan for taking me out of the technical doldrums and made me see that there is actually a grey area between the whites and blacks, a maybe in the land of yes and no.

Different kinds of cakes

So, there are three different kinds, from
lobak to yam to well, well, pumpkin!

Dancing Queens

The girls did an impromptu dance routine and so, in a flash, I took my Nikon D50 out. Its way faster and more reliable than the Nokia 5800.

Well, I am stumped on this one.
How did she learn to make such
faces, I don't know.

NERF Appreciation

What the....?! This time, its RM119.95!

This is the new NERF Stampede for RM250. Since I was
in a rush, first glance it looked great and all but why the
need for batteries? Auto-fire? Hmmm....

New LED lamp strip.

I was at Pasar Road today and with limited cash resources until pay day in 2 weeks time, I decided to have a look-see on the new LED strips. They were on sale weeks ago but I never did have the chance to take a look at them properly. But today, when I saw the demo, I was sold!

These are the new LED strips which as SMD LEDs
on 3mm fibreglass boards. yes, they do look very
fragile and at RM15.00 per strip, I do not want to
stress test them. The power requirements are the
usual 12volts but needing 0.2A of current.

At almost 18.5 inches long, it might just be the
thing for one "Mr. Chin from Sabah". And when
I worked out the prices, it might actually be
cheaper than what I am planning to do with the
normal LEDs. But bear in mind, the light shines
in one way.....

I took this shot at home and believe me, its
very very bright.

There is another one, but with the much
bigger SMD LEDs, almost the same ones
I used for the Iron Man Arc Reactor. I
did not ask the price since they are much
more expensive with the plastic tube and
a remote control unit.

Kaelynn's Bathcap

Its one of those cold nights where mommy would not let the girls wet their hair during bath-time. And so, the only solution would be to use a bath cap since I am hopeless in keeping water away from their hair.

Kaelynn with her very own bath cap after she
commented that Mommy's stinks.

Another great chili?

Just so happens that I actually had time to go to lunch with my colleagues, what with all the chaos around me (that will be another story one fine day). And the best part was that the food she ordered came with a very delicious looking chili sauce. Fortunately, it was too hot for her and so, I get to have the rest.

Boy, this chili is good. Just right after I took the first bite, I started to sweat. Its hot, and well, a little bit oily, I think. And the secret I think, were in the chili seeds left on the plastic dish after I finished it. Wow.

The only things missing were the chopped garlic
and spring onions. Boy this is good!

Shedding my skin

Just the other day, when I was scratching my back, I was shocked to see so much 'lou lai' (grime) on my fingernails. And usually, this is the area which is hard for me to wash with soap. So, I washed again and again but they still turn up. It was not until this morning that when I saw my skin flaking off, did I remember that I had sunburn the week before. Phew.

Yes, I am wearing emerald underpants today,
thank you very much.

The Microscope

A microscope. Wow. I mean, if i had gotten this when I was young, I would have a lot of fun with it. But now, all I can see is .............. a potential Sci-Fi prop. Months ago, when I was looking for a simple magnifier, eBay pointed me to this. And it was all mine as soon as I shell out more than USD29.00 (but I just checked today, its dropped to USD9.99. Darn). Anyway, there was another version which my Boss's Boss bought in KL months ago, but for RM70-odd.

I liked that one but the price for that in eBay was too much.

And so, this microscope costs me RM35.00.
I k now, its cheap and won't last long. Even
at a simple glance everyone would know its
made in China. Besides the cheap microscope
viewing plates, it also has a base which acts
as a stand for the device.

Here, you can see the lens and also,
it has its own light source.

And the LED is pure white, which
surprisingly, despite its size, does
its job well. And it uses those coin-
cell batteries instead of the AAA.

Unfortunately, this part also tend
to fall off as there was no secure
proper mechanism to secure it.
All they used was a screw which
has no threads to bite into.

The reason why I am so worried was
because of the small metal part which
is supposed to be 'glued' to the bottom
cover is loose and not only that, it is
very oxidised. One day, I have to
glue it in place because if the cover
drops, its hard to find them back.

Anyway, now its time to test out the microscope.
I chose my old shaver blade and used a magnet
to stick it to the base since its very slippery.
But no maggots here, though. Phew.

OK, this is how the shaver looks like

Under the microscope, at 20x magnification.
Although I can see well without the glasses,
the Nokia 5800 has problems. And actually,
the image is very bright compared to this pic

At 30x magnification, you can see most of the
crap but somehow, the Nokia turned all the
details into black shades.

At 40x magnification. I wanted to focus on
the blade but its very disorientating when
moving the blade as everything is opposite.
When you move it inward, the image goes
outwards and so on.

Mooncake Festival 2010

Being an absolute and 100% banana, I did not know that today is Mooncake Festival Night. It was not until my Wife SMSed me to remind me not to work too late tonight. And also, maybe its pure coincidence that I went about Jalan Raja Laut looking for 'stuff'. And so, I happen to come across a real Chinese lady who sold me some LED candles before I could tell her I do not understand Mandarin. However, when she mentioned RM6.00, it all became clear.

Last year, these candles were on sale in eBay but the prices they commanded was ludicrous. And here, she is selling for RM3.00 each, a fraction of a fraction of the price. What is so specail this time was that apart from the almost real flickering of the LED, when you blow it, it will go off, just like a real candle.

Silly old me went and bought them, all the while thinking about the wind/air switch that can be salvaged. Little did I know, there is no such thing and these Chinese were ingenious when it came to solving that problem.

The girls were happy with the LED candle because
although each have their own lantern, there were
no candles. So, Kristin had the bright idea of using
them on the lanterns. Clever girl!

The girls demonstrating how to switch it 'off'

And so, under the bright moonlight, I had
lens flare.

Still, the girls had their fun, thanks
to Kristine's smart thinking. And no,
we did not put idea into her head
either. So, Boys and Girls, I suspect
it must be the milk powder at play.

I had to use the flash to take some
shots as it was too dark.

The mystery of the wind switch solved.Its actually
a microphone in there, connected to a microprocessor
(black glob), acting as a sound switch. This is because
when you blow through the hole, it creates noise for
the mic and so, it swithes on or off. In other words, you
can even clap your hands or place it near a speaker
for some funky effects. Heh.

This was a 10 second exposure shot for fun where
I told the girls to stay still. Something which is
incredibly hard for them to do...... ha ha ha ha.

The tough Kelisa

Spotted this while I was on the way back
to the car. If the owner raised it higher,
it would look like a very cute mini 4x4.

Mouth Ulcer 3

Its almost a week now and my mouth ulcers are still, well, ulcering in there. It has given me nothing but pure absolute bliss in the pain realm.

Although the lower lips are still painful, they
are starting to go away.

But this is not the case with the upper part. It was
so lonely that it got a few friends to join in the
party. Oh, please mind the vege on the teeth.
I am a vegetablerian; I eat veges at the table.

A very Macross Toy

Finally, another target has been achieved. This was a toy I have set my eyes upon when I first saw it in Sungei Wang many years ago. Unfortunately, the owner does not want to sell it to me even if I offered a good price for it and even prepared to wait for the 'display period' to be over. Many months later, I found out it was sold. I was very angry with that fact and I was ready to walk up to the owner to give him a piece of my mind. But what do you know, revenge comes in mysterious ways and yep, his shop closed down.

And so, its one of those things that I have to keep in mind when I go to places. And just so that it happened that it was being sold on eBay, and it was the cheapest of the lot. The others were being sold almost five times the amount excluding postage.... yes, a rip-off.

And after three weeks, it arrived on my office's
desk. All in one piece, luckily.

When I first took it out, I was a bit skeptical because
the design of the box looks very much like those used
by resin recasters in the 90's.

Its good that I was wrong and so, guess which figure
I was after?

Yep, its the pilot in the cockpit. Roy Focker, the
hero's mentor in the original Macross series.

My memory escapes me but it was such a long
time ago I have watched a single Macross from
the RTM station. But I knew the cockpit wasn't
that cramped. Still, in this toy, its almost 10cm
long or 4 inches. So, its very big.

First thing first. Assemble the stand. Its
a three piece and looks quite solid.

One big surprise is that the base of the stand
is actually transparent but coated in black.
yep, idea forming in my head already.....

Looking at the main piece, its actually comprised
of other smaller parts which were glued during
manufacturing. But basically, you have the main
craft, the pilot and seat plus part of the craft again.

And it looks very impressive when set up!
Now, all I have to do is to find a nice clear
display box to show it off.

I am not sure but even the canopy have HUDs!

A Closer look
Now, lets examine the toy more closely. I thinks its a combination of clear (resin?) parts and vinyl rubber, with the letter being not very long lasting. I have this fear as they are apt to disintegrate after some time and more importantly, the clear parts tend to yellow. And so, what can I do? Of course the natural response would be to store it a container and keep it away from daylight 9source of UV).

But the other side of me is itching to re-cast them into clear parts, something which I have though about (resin casting, I mean) but have never done it before. The closest was in '93 using plaster. I got hold of a Horizon Terminator (Arnold Swarzenegger) vinyl model, and cast his face. It was nice but at that time, the only casting material available to me was Plaster of Paris. When I tried resin, well, it failed miserably, turning out to be The Stickynator instead.

So, as you can see, most of the parts are clear.
However, some of the material is not plastic
but clear rubbery stuff. This would be nice if
I could recast them all in clear plastic.

They painted over the clear parts to give it a
solid presentation.

And as far s the console goes, the front is made
of clear stuff painted over and glued to a solid
vinyl. So, why am I obsessed with making the
items all clear? Apart from making them last
longer, it can be lit up! I mean, imagine how
the cockpit would look like if it is lit up. Exactly.

Oh, and if you look closely at the helmet, its
just a clear part and there is no Roy Fokker
in there.

Here is another look at the Pilot seat. Here, roy
does not look too crouched but you can see him
craning his neck. However, if you put him back
into the cockpit, its a different story.

And yes, the whole toy is 1/32 scale. I
compared it with Moebius's Viper pilot
which was incidentally, 1/32.