The green cover

Remember the green toggle switch cover I
got from eBay two weeks ago? Well, I found
the switch. Its original cover was used in the
CCTV Tester mk II project.

So, why did I chose green? This was because in
the DeLorean, just right under the Time Circuit
switch, there is a toggle swith and its cover was
green. Heh.

Take-away

Its late and about 730 PM, Mommy still has not returned and so I made up my mind to get some take-away. Common sense shows that by this time, if you spouse comes back this late and from a school activity, the last thing they want to do is to cook. Really. So, I SMS-ed her, got her order and called the restaurant ahead. By the time I got the girls bathed and ready, it was time to collect the food.

But we still had to wait a bit more since
everyone was busy and there were a lot
of take-aways too.

While waiting for the satay as well, i
got the girls to sit down. Notice how
Kristine naturally puts her leg? As
far as I know, we did not teach her
this. Luckily there was no rats this
evening or it might freak them out

A few more shots and yep, the food's ready

After dinner, they were in a naughty mood.
This is Kaelynn with her Tarzan imitation

Mommy: I want you to eat six pieces!
Kaelyn: OK, I eat six bites
Mommy: .............

And she is so pretty~
Actually, Kaelynn got bored and wanted to
watch the new Winnie the Pooh and the
Cinderella DVD I bought earlier but her
ssiteer has not finished her homework yet.

Trip to ..... Or, why I collapsed in bed

Being a Saturday and with no one around, is a bit of a problem for me. I need to go to Pasar road today to get some LEDs. I could not go last week as there was something else that cropped up. Anyway, because Mommy had some school activities, I decided to take the girls along with me. I don't mind then coming with me but as it was rightly pointed out, it might not be safe.

However, taking that into consideration, I decided to to go there as early as I can. With the shops opening up and with minimal traffic, the mission went well.

The girls were intriqued with the numerous electronic
stuff on display even though they were not switched on

But Kristine was easily bored. So, I had to make
my purchases as fast as possible. And the shop
regulars were happy to see us anyway.

After my purchase, I brought them to
Pudu Plaza where each got what they
wanted, based on the one item per
girl rule. This made them choose
what they really wanted and not
just crap you can buy and then
throw away.

After that, it was back our home, where we will be
eating t Macdonalds. Since it had no parking space,
we decided to go to BSC instead. On the way, the
girls were impatient to open their prizes.

To store more, Kristine used the new bag which
I bought at KLIGP. It folds back into a small bag
when not in use.

Unfortunately, MacDonalds in BSC closed
three years ago and so, after taking a few
photos of this.. this.. thing, we left.

OK, one more shot, then.

And one for the road.

Really, we need to go or we
would have to pay for parking
after the 10 minutes grace is up

We ended up at Amcorp Mall since the Pusat
Damansara area would be deserted during the
weekends. So we ordered the value meals
equivalent for Double Cheseburger, Nuggets
and Big Mac. The I forgot about the three
helpings of fries! Oh-oh!

There is so much to eat!

And so much to pay! aiyo!

But finally, we sorted ourselves and managed
to eat most of the food. Here, Kaelynn keeps
her nuggets away from Kristine as they had a
small fight on the way.

While the chips are going down.....

Someone is full. Actually, they are not
full but rather, got bored with the food
and wanted ice-cream instead. I made
sure they ate most of the food and only
then, when we walked down to the base
ment level, would I consider ice-creams
for them. I not, I DBKL also cannot finish
all the food.

Hey, hey. The old cinema has been converted into a
Bookstore. One day, I must go in and have a look
but not with the girls and so many people right now

Back home, the girls were excited because this means
they can now open their prizes.

Kaelynn with her Strawberry Shortcake
stickers. Its a 3D pop-up set of stickers.

And Kristine with her new set of colour markers.
Althouh I did not know it, Wife said the marker
inks can be washed off. On the skin, that is. But
that did not stop the girls from writing on their
hands and then rinsing them off. Haih, kids.

Its a bit special because the marker also double
up as a stamp. Its great but you have to remember
that the ink fro the marker feeds the stamp. So, if
you forget and mix the covers up, you're going to
have a very weird coloured stamp and markers

For me, I got a 240 namecard holder in Pudu and
a second hand Dell USB keyboard at Amcorp Mall

Not to mention the 30 white LEDs and these
0.8cm and 1.0cm red and green bulb indicators
which i can easily convert them into LEDs.

Once I plugged the keyboard in, WinXP
recognises it and I can start to use the
keyboard right away.

All the custom buttons work and if i really want to
customise them, i would have to find and download
the Drivers from Dell. But not right now.

One nice thing about the keyboard is that
it has two extra USB ports which is a great
idea and very important to me.

The keyboard also comes with an added snap-on
wrist guard. D wanted a DELL keyboard 10 years
ago and now, I got it. And its a better model. The
problem is, I do see a lot of them lying around but
it was difficult for me to either buy them or, just
take it, for a lot of reasons.

And yes, its very comfortable typing on it. Actually, I
was sort of hoping to have the clickety-click feedback
but those type of keyboards (in the 90's) are long gone.

And so, the three of us rest and waited until we fell asleep for hours.

KLIGP 2010

After the meeting, we decided to attend the KLIGP 2010 Exhibition. The same exhibition my company wanted to participate but its another story. I wanted to go there because I want to see for myself, the different diary designs produced and also, more importantly, how the competitor stands. Most of the participants actually import stuff or OEM them. And if they were manufacturing, the cost is still a bit too high. Makes me wonder the part about "International" although I only saw a handful of foreign companies. OK, make that two; one for machine stitching and one for tourism. Still, its a great event but personally, I think it was marred by the fact that you need to 'dispose' your badges (but keep the paper) at the exit. It would be nice if they could inform you during registration and that it needs to be recycled for, well, environmental purposes (lie a bit, la) and it would be nice. Now, the show reminds me of it being cheapskate, a laughing joke for visiting guests. And while I am being cynical, I would also like to think why it was set at this date until I realised, its school holidays. i.e. cheap labour.

Weeks ago, when I called up the organiser, the tulan
Lady who picked it up sounded uninterested until I
had to sternly remind her that I am calling as a
customer and not some idiot asking about a last
minute information (actually, I was)

One good thing was that at the entrance, there was
a big shelf which showcases a few 'big' companies
with their attractive products, something which I
have not seen from China websites. Either that or
did not surf the Net more. heh. Note the USB device
on the left. Its selling for RM30 which when they
plugged to the Nokia 5800, it allows the PC to read
the microSD card without having to take out the
card itself. And then I though, wait a minute. I can
just set my Nokia 5800 to Mass Storage mode and
its the same thing except i cannot plug in like a USB
without my Noka cable. Nah, I'll pass on that or if
and when the price comes down to RM10 or so.

There there are some attractive USB drives.
Apart from the cute orange guy, its a little bit
boring. I mean, you can have Pandan Po or the
Ice-cream stick but they're so big, you might
have problems inserting to a USB port on a
Laptop or where there are other USB devices
connected together. So I passed on this one too.

Now, a transparent namecard, something I wanted
to design long ago but never got to more than a few
due to costs and their durability. But look on the
right, a credit card USB drive. Its starting to come
from China.

Finally, a torchlight umbrella. Yes, finally. The
foldable umbrella was invented long ago and it
was only in the late 90's were the LED torch
concept began to shine.

Well, i can think of one or two companies who might
appreciate this design. Its cute. Cuter than those
wooden pallates.

The annoying name cards.
At the fair, you do get a lot of free gifts from pens to bags. But what is not nice is that most of them would gladly give them or their catalogues to you in exchange for your namecard. Probably one booth started this years ago and now, everyone does it. It would be more fun if they could
let you 'insert' your card into a machine or something and then you get some free stuff in return. I know they need this as a way to get more contacts but this makes the visitor feels like a beggar. So, when I happened to me, I just told them that its too bad you booked your booth this far as the ones near to the entrance all got my namecards. And no, I don't care if your booth sends you out and you give me your cute bambi eyes. only have less than four namecards and its all gone.

Because they're young kids, I managed to get an additional
KLGIP bag. (Later on, I realised each bag has some further
'free gifts' apart from the precious Guidebook) Its a good
thing too because the bag I had tore easily.

Back home, after a few hours there, I had a lot of flyers
and catalogues to go through. Which is fun. But i will be
giving all of them to my Boss. I know he would be asking
me to go to these fairs but because I was starting to be
always out, he might not get the chance to see me. So, I
am doing this on hindsight.

These are the stuff that came from the KLIGP
bags. You have a notepad, cough sweets, a very
nice bookmark and what the.......

...cigarette filters! Why cig filters? I know you might
need the sweets when you talk too much at the show
but everyone I saw or bumped into, did not smoke.

Ok, this is a magnetic bookmark but I am
more interested in the rubber "MapInfo"
thing. They told me there is no MOQ but
in this industry, I don't think so.

Then there is the thermal transfer which caught
my interest. So, I talked to them for quite some
time and funny thing is, they gave me their card
instead of asking for mine because they had so
much people calling them, they won't remember
who I am. Yeah, I asked for a lot of samples too.

And they did demo to me a few times and I love
this one because you can feel it 'pop' out from
the cloth. Imagine wearing a Punisher T-Shirt

Another item I was interested in was the mini light
box. It was so beautiful to look at and I was about
to get one/enquire, my wallet stopped me. I mean,
I did one with PVC pipes before and so, if I want to
have the same setup, I would just need to invest a
bit more on lighting and a white background.

To be honest, the first and last tradeshow for premiums I have ever been to was in 2001. And so, to me, nothing much has changed except for the products, the namecard requirement and yes, credit card agents at the exit.

There are no shows to give each participant a 15-minutes of fame, no walking free-gifts or mascots, no talks and unfortunately, not enough places for seats and discussion. OK, so I did not look at the guidebook but there were no "You are here" maps at strategic junctions. I won't complain about the planning or floor layout because most booths are selling multiple items. For example, booth A sells, diary covers, calendars, USB drives and bags. Then you have booth B selling USB related calculators. The on Booth C, you have Bags again, clocks, etc.