Oh!pEnions: 10/23/10

Sleeping Beasties

[11.10.2010 0046]

And yes, sometimes their fight continues into
Dreamland as well...... sigh.

The school is starting to give her more homework
which we're happy. And so, tonight's work is to
draw some apples as dictated by the numbers.
Personally, they looked more like pears....
or keys... or upside-down balloon... or
tie-up satchels....

Random parts

[15.10.2010 2038]

Found this at Pasar Road. All this for Rm5.00.
What Am I going to do with it, I am not sure.
But if I use it as a source for a 1/20 Vulcan
cannon, it would look bad-ass. Very bad-ass....

The Helmet

[19.10.2010 2020]

And right after that, I went to my next appointment. This is to help another member which nexus knew. And if it was not for him, I would not even be bothered to help the young chap out. They are going to make a helmet from a certain film which will be shown in December. And so, it must be ready by November. This is my first time seeing his helmet and I must say, his progress so far is quite impressive. Other than that, I will keep my opinions to myself. Anyway, as his helmet is not ready until the first week of November, I cannot do much because there are no measurements for me to take. For my requirement, I need to know how much space there is inside the helmet so that I can use the correct LEDs.

This is the prototype circuit. So far, what you see are the
LEDs for one side of the helmet. Once I have the other
electronics figured out, I would be needing at least three
more prototype boards. Since the pattern for the LEDs
are 'random' I basically came up with 13 sequences but
at the cost of chip memory. So, he can only select the
pattern in random.

This is his helmet so far, with my LEDs running in
the background. Its not finished yet because there
are so much more things to do. Maybe I will visit
him at the end of the month to see his progress.

The Last customer near IOI Mall

[19.10.2010 1833]

One thing about visiting customers in their office is that anything can happen. Its not always the 'going into the office, meet the customer and discuss about your product' routine. And just like today, I was not prepared for what happened.

While I parked my car, I walked to the customer's office and saw him there at the bottom floor. When he saw me, he was happy and told me to go up to his office and wait for a bit. So, I went up and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I waited and waited.

And then I waited some more.

By the time he came up, more than an hour had passed. And feeling cold and a bit dispirited, I just gritted my teeth and carried on with my job. We had a good conversation. But the product he wanted, was took risky to produce. To wind the story up, I told him i would do my best to help but we both know the answer.

And then, after coming down, I was mentally exhausted. Why, I am not sure. And so, I sat in the car and thought what went wrong. Luckily, the engine was not running or else, I would be the one that's wrong. Permanently.

And so, to take my mind off things, I decided to take a walk at IOI Mall since its less than 300 metres from where I parked. Its been ages sicne I went to IOI and the last time, it was because of work. The only thing I can remember at IOI was the new wing which has Ace Hardware, daiso and Popular Bookstore. As for the old wing, well, it was just... there. Another reason why I needed to go there was because of a long delayed errant I was supposed to complete.....

While I was there, I got sidetracked by
this. A mousetrap. I forgot how much it
costs but that is not the point.

This is a portable mousetrap. And as you can see,
it is a very convenient solution for those "I don't
want to get my hands dirty" who believe in clinically
clean and non-guilty solutions. If there is a rat, the
red plastic flag will change position. So easy.
(On other words: If you want to kill it, then go
and kill la. No need to suffer them because
you don't like to feel guilty afterwards.)

At the back is a small trapdoor for you to put some
bait and all you have to do is to wait for some rat
to come in through the front door.

That is, until you reaslise that the Malaysian rats,
just like us, are all obese. The door is only for rats
who have Gym Memberships. I mean, One and a
half inch waistline? It will have better luck trapping
your lost hamsters and pet mice.

And so, after having my hearts filled up with
humour, I decided that it was time to go home.
Whooo.......... lookit the nice Sunset, Then I
remembered my forgotten errand and so, back
to IOI I went.....

If Jacky Chan endorses that anti-virus software,
why can't Ultraman do the same? And so, here
we go, Ultraman engine oil. Except that he's been
doing this years before Jackie. But do not let it
near children who will think that by drinking it,
they too, can become Ultraman.

It does not help if it comes with a plastic snout.

Anyway, I finally found what I came for and yep,
its the RM5x.xx Pledge Future Floor Polish. I
called up Bruce just to make sure that its the real
thing. It started way back in the late 90's that
some modeller found the amazing effects of dipping
clear plastic model parts into Future which gave the
effects of clear glass and hid a lot of imperfections.

So, I am not surprised that a lot of modellers swear
by it. But one day, when I have the opportunity, I
will test this along with the H2O. Of course one is
hard and the other allows for flexing.

New ideas for the Tricorders

[10.10.2010 1916]

OK, I am bored tonight. Or maybe, I should be saying, "I am being lazy" tonight. There are so many things to do and yet, in the moment of panic, I do not know which is more important. I mean, I am having at least, five projects running simultaneously. Three of them are supposed to be completed by end of this month while the other two is for next month. Serves me right for not planning properly.....

And so, to escape all that, I decided to open up my
free 2009 Tricorder, just to re-visit all the mess I
created in the first version. I mean, the wiring I've
done is crazy. I just hope Peter does not drop it too
much. And speaking of Peter, he has also modified
his Playmates Tricorder. For someone who do not
know electronics, his mod is quite impressive. So, I
will not open it up until I have done all my planning.

Teamwork

"See the small little ants working together? They all
helped take this dead insect back to their home. One
ant cannot do this alone. See the insect is many times
bigger than the ant. So, both of you must help each
other and not fight all the time. Understand?"

Both looked at me and nodded even it they don't know what I was talking about. They just want me to finish the boring story and run away......