The trip down South

In just less than a week, I was to go outstation again. This time, South. I had two places to go, namely Seremban and Kulai. Knowing that Kulai is the furthest, it will be my first stop since Seremban's is to return a repaired phone. I am confident that I will be able to complete the two calls.

But this was not to be so. Boss was in a very bad mood the whole week. And he is looking for scapegoats to vent his frustrations. And because of new directive, I had a lot of paperwork which bogged me down until eleven in the morning. By then, I really had to rush for the trip. I was travelling a little over 90 trying to cover the long distance but in the end, it was for naught. By the time I was in Kulai, it was too late to get to Seremban and the customer is not interested in waiting until seven thirty in the evening.

So, the next morning, I was the scapegoat. I know my Boss's tactic of venting on me that morning. He took my trip's problem as a case study and tried to pin something on me. First, he asked others in the meeting that if they were me, which customer should I go first and the answer was Kulai. Both my technicians kept quiet. Not satisfied, he then calculated the time needed to take to each destination on the board, with me adding the actual figures for him. And still, he was not satisfied. He wanted the answer to be Seremban but the facts stated otherwise. One last try, I was to be chided for not informing the customer earlier. Lastly, I added the fact that the call in Kulai was more important as it dealt with system programming. But I left it at that because I know it will be an exercise in futility since he is the type of Chinaman who needs "Face" and authority and I have painted him into a corner unwittingly.

I know his bad mood was not because of anything but cash problems in the company. Still, his effect has shaken my team of technicians which I have built for some time. Just last week, one just walked off and refused to have lunch with him after his outburst. If this keeps going on, its a matter of time before the whole team cracks and my technicians all walk out on me. Sometimes, I am also thinking, why the fuck should I sacrifice so much for so little and still have to keep my temper while he does not?

I know he is taking inspiration and mirroring it from another customer where the Boss is quite personal and friendly (but with temper too). And my counterpart in that customer's company? A worried, scared and loyal Manager who is always on his toes. I don't want to end up being that kind of fucked up spineless cunt like that.

So, today is going to be a nice day

Solved the problem in Kulai and now, onwards to Seremban!

By the way, popped by Toyota and they're giving this
for even purchase of the new Toyota Altis. Mind you,
this is extremely limited edition. From the looks of it,
I think this could be from the same company who made
Mini-Z R/C cars; Kyosho. The tell tale signs were the fine
and detailed mouldings of the body

Oh-oh. rain is coming. Better leave fast!

These are I think, less than a week old. A plant
on a big bowl supported by three balls which
are not even cemented or bolted on. Imagine if
a vehicle accidentally brushed on it or a strong
wind blowing........

See? One of them fell already. I was here earlier but
did not take the photos since I was in a rush.

Ah, the evening sky! I could have stopped and took a
better photo but I was "rushing" to get to Seremban
which was too late. I should have stopped and to Hell
with everything.

Just fix it, OK?

Customer gave me this PC. He said to check on the software
(Call Billing) if it works or not. When I opened the PC, I saw
a lot of crap on the screen. I am not going to clean the icons
away. Besides, they changed the password on the software
and both serial COM ports are not working. Haih.

New Ding Dong Bell

It was just a matter of time before it happened. The wireless doorbell that survived the harsh weather has just broke. I should have thought about weather-proofing it but I just kept forgetting about it. So, this is my problem. I had no choice but to get a new one since the old doorbell is now beyond function. I mean, I could really look into it and replace the faulty parts but knowing me, it won't happen anytime soon.

This is the old doorbell. Note the water damage to both
the circuit board and the battery terminals. See the top
part of the circuit board, the wavy lines are actually its
antenna. I'll epxlain later why this is so important.

Here is a closer look. Based on what I see, I just hope that
the capacitor is the only component damaged by water

This is the new doorbell, which costs me slightly more
It does not have volume selection and the melodies,
although are nice, is a one-button push affair. There is
a switch at the back which turns on an extra recording
saying "Assallamualaikum"

This is the new doorbell. Note the lines at the bottom
of the circuit board. Its the antenna. Notice the minimal
count of electronic components. Its using the same RF
chip, though. Hmmm... maybe I should R&D on this IC

Thanks to KFC, the new doorbell is now splash-proof!

Do you want fries with that?

Remember the problem with the antenna? Once I mount
it up to the gate, the doorbell refused to work. There must
be something interfering behind the concrete as when I
moved the doorbell a few inches away, it worked. But then,
it is impossible to make another hole for that. So, I opened
both doorbell units and soldered some (red) wires in the
hopes of improving the RF communication. But then, I am
not a Communications expert. Still, in the end, it did work,
but slighty better

Finally!

For five weeks, I have been going to this
customer at least two times a week. Now
the work is done. Until we discover there
is no extra Network cable and my tech
broke one of the CCTV's bracket......
Oh well, here we go again!

The message

Sometimes when one party needs to locate a line, they
will leave a sign or message to another party once they
have found it for them. And sometimes, the message
are quite funny, But this one, has a double meaning
although the end is the same.

Towards a better mind

Thanks to Ronald, the 512MB RAM from Hong Kong is finally here. It is here. Here! And it will be in my hands soon!

That is, if I can find the bloody time to go and collect it. Yeah, I am so busy with my job now, I cannot even tell you exactly if I can commit to any appointments I have made due to my hectic schedules. But finally, after more than a week, I got my chance. I have a customer in Jalan Ipoh who is quite close to the collection point.

I tell you, this is the most narrow street I have
ever driven into. The space is for one and half
cars only and you can't park even by the side

This is what happned when you do that. This lady
just stopped her car and rushed in, leaving her
kids playing with the steering wheel summore.
I did not horn her by a motorcyclist did

Anyway, the RAM is here! And its HKD690 (RM282) which
is way cheaper from Internet or Low Yatt As they cost about
and average of RM250 to RM450. And that is not including
postage! I hearts Ronald! (Yeah, its weird for me to say that)

Hokay, this is my Notebook's current memory: 384MB

I take out the 128MB, slot in the new 512MB but left
the 256MB alone. Should I get another 512MB?

And now I realised, I should not have left my Notebook on
[Hibernate] but [Shut Down] instead. Doing this is like
waking up in mid air when you're supposed to be on the bed

And now, there's 786MB RAM in there! And my Notebook speed went
Super Duper fast!
Not!
There is no marked increase in performance. The stewpid Hard disk still
spin like crazy and things took agens to load. However, when nothing is
running, viewwing my D50 pictures was fast(er) than before. Oh well.
Maybe I should get my friend to open up the Notebook and place a faster
Pentium processor in there......

Still, I am happy and its a good reason to drink a can of Coke
and a bag of keropok bawang. Thank the lucky stars that no
one was at home when I came back to do all these or else the
RAM might be in pieces, my keropok "stolen" and my can of
Coke confiscated (not supposed to have too much sugar)

The 300 meter rain

100 metres: Raining cats and Dogs and flash floods too

200 meters: Raining tigers and wolves

300 metres: raining kittens and puppies

The trip up North

Since my Boss was not available to come with me, I had to take the trip alone. I am not suprised because the appointment was at ten in the morning. This means, I would have to wake up early and start my journey at seven in the morning. Reason? Remember, the 90Km/h speed limit applies to the van on highways.

By the time I had arrived, it was exactly ten in the morning! The customer is going to renovate his building and it would take about two years. So, he will shift one department out while it is being torn down. And when it is ready, he will move it back and do the same with the remaining department. And we all have one month to accomplish the moving. My job is to check the new site for a proper area to install a new PABX system and make sure nothing goes wrong, especially the incoming lines from Telekom.

At 0800, the Sun is already up. But you can see the
morning mists lazily moving away

But half an hour further up North, it was still misty

An hour later, nearing Ipoh, I wished I could stop the
van and take a proper photo.

At the new site, the guard is nowhere to be seen and the
poor bitch was chained up. Later, the customer set her
free. Man, I have never see so much nipples! Heh heh

While most of the people were taking measurements and all,
I was busy practising my "from the hip" shots.

Seconds after taking this shot, the puppy was tumblign after me
But because I set my camera on ground level, most of the shots
that came out was rather out of focus. But it was fun. Until I
stepped on dog poo which I have avoided all morning.

Boring

I was mesmerised by the scenery at Gua Musang rest stop
But I do not know how to make it better except going across
the stream to pick up the polystyrene box

Tapah rest stop. Had to snap this fast because of people
walking left and right non-stop. Felt like scolding them
and picking a fight.

Once I return back to KL, wife wanted me to accompany her
to Mid-Valley. This is the first time I had the Tak-something
Octopus balls outside Jayajusco which Dr. Liew has been
commenting about. They have Octopus, Ham & Cheese, Unagi
and Prawn fillings. The cost is RM3.90 for three but I made the
mistake of taking it back home to eat. By then, the balls had shrunk

I bought this for RM19.90 since I had a bit left from my outstation
meal allowance (OK, so I did not eat). I wanted the guy in the box
but they only had this left. Luckily, with my torchlight, I managed
to get the correct box since the other two are duds; some lady figure
[A few days later, someone opened the remaining 2 boxes. Duds]

It would be very interesting if his other finger were raised

What to these people eat? Are they on a strict diet?
Have the GUNDAM cockpits shrunk?

Ok, I was attracted to their tight flight costumes

And the Helmet. Definitely the Helmet.

How to get more Vitagen

First, you give one Vitagen each.
Before you know it, Kristine finishes hers first.

So, she decided that both of them should share
the remaining Vitagen which is Kaelynn's

And she poured at the ratio of 80:20

Until I intervened to make sure the ratio is 50:50

Being corny

You don't have to close your eyes to eat corn
but it helps.

You have . . . . . 30 over drafts

Yeah, I just accidentally clicked on the drafts segment and then I realised I have a lot of drafts to either delete or post them, with the earliest ones since 2005. What I usually do is to take the photos, then upload them and save them as drafts until I have time to put some words in.

But usually, because of my busy schedules when Kristine and Kaelynn was born and now my work, I would eventually forget about the drafts. With new posts coming in, they would push all these drafts back and forgotten.

So, anyway, I have started on a few and put them back where they belong in those thousand over posts. And if you have the time, you can go a find them and read them. Hee hee hee hee. OK, OK, I'll just put the key words like [This was a Draft] or something.

Lazy fucker

Sometimes, this fella is so lazy, he does not want to
terminate to the patch panel rack below. OK, OK,
if he does that, he would have to purchase a new
panel. A Phone cable comes in 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 50, 100
pairs. A patch panel comes in 24 ports. In this case,
there are some extra one or two pairs from the phone
but to put them onto the panel catered for 24 is very
expensive. But it has to be done.

Mini LED projection clock

OK, OK, I admit I am getting a bit addicted to the DIY shop behind our office. I mean, they have so much electronic stuff from China and with the ridiculous prices, it was hard not to buy anything. Yeah, this is the thing that interested me.

Projection clock. It would be fun to have it at night when I needed to tell the time. OK, OK. So that was a bad excuse since I already have a watch.

For RM3.00, what I got was actually a red LED torch
with a LCD screen in there.

The moment you press the button, the red LED will
shine on the LCD screen and then the Lens will
magnify the image. To get a bigger display of the clock
image, you have to move the torch further back from
the wall. Unfortunately since the red LED is not that
bright, the further you go, the dimmer it gets.

Chinese Big Pau

After all the hoo-haa about the biodegradable Paus in China, would anyone ever dared to eat them again? Heck, yeah. I would. (But I have to check the contents first.) Still, after reading that story, it seemed so plausible. In Malaysia, there are two types of Paus on sale here.

The first one is where actual chicken meat and an egg stuffed are inside. And the second one is where everything is minced and then stuffed inside sans egg. The latter has been cropping up almost everywhere I bought them from.

Speaking about Paus, in the old times, my Dad related to me how customers tried to cheat the restaurant owners. When they order a big pau, the customer would then make a hole at the bottom and then eat the whole contents in the pau. Then, they would call the waiter over and say, that they do not want the pau anymore and the waiter would then take it back. Once they discover the ruse, the customer would have gone. Believable? Unless the dumb waiter does not know the difference (in weight) between a full pau and an empty one.

Nope, no paper mulch in this one

Too expensive to swallow.......

Wife: Hope you like your porridge
Me: Well, its OK (looked a bit bland for a fish porridge) and quite a huge portion
Wife: That's because it costs me RM4.50
Me: What the .........! RM4.50! (cough cough)
Wife: In case you did not know, the price of food has risen
Me: Wah lau! Next time don't go and buy form there anymore la..............

Needless to say, I did not enjoy it very much.
For that price, I would rather drive down to
Jalan Alor for the porridge. I know I have to
add the cost of petrol and parking but its
worth it.