Trip to Genting: Day 1

And so, after the Raya Holidays, it was our turn. We're going to Genting for three days, away from everything that is KL. Hah. if only that was true. And so, after lunch, we set off for on a journey to learn about how money disappears faster than you can work for it.

Breakfast and lunch combined. I asked for 'anything'
and it turned out to be mee-hoon big enough for at
least three people. So, as usual, I drank the soup but
this mee-hoon soaked it up faster than me. So, I took
revenge by pouring soy-sauce and green chili on it. I
think I stopped it but it was too late by then.

Anywyay, the drive up there was uneventful except that
I have no experience with driving an Auto 2.0 Litre car.
Every gear I used, it just gave me spurts of power before
it changed gear. And when I got it right, I had to slow it
down for the corners or speed bumps. All the while, I had
to make sure my style does not cause it to overheat. Haih.
I think I shortened the car's life by driving is this way.
Once we checked into the Hotel, it was time to a well
deserved rest or vomit or well, you know how I drove.
But for the girls, it was time to check out the bed.....

Sometime later, the girls were hungry and so, Mommy
had to cook some instant noodles since the time now
is between tea and dinner. Suprisingly, Kristine ate
them within a very short time.

Unfortunately, the reversed happened. Kaelynn
needed to be coaxed and also fed by Mommy.
She has been very down and moody ever since
we arrived, compared to Kristine who was very
excited and bubbly.

We decided to take the cable car
up to Genting. But unfortunately.
the Skyway system was under
maintenance until November and
today was the first day for every
one to change to the other cable
car system. Yes, it was chaotic.

More than 20 people jammed into a cable car that
has minimal ventilation and also, what is worse is
that non of the younger generation gave up seats
to the elderly. But looking at them, they must be
Foreigners too as there were some Indonesian
Tourists next to us. The only thing I can do is
to smile and imaging smashing their face in
with my foot.

I caught Kristine off guard and wanted to scold
her for her actions. Why? take a look at this:
First she wets her finger with her saliva....

Then she use it on her hair. Eeuughhhh! If it wasn't for
her cuteness, I would have scolded her then and then
on the spot. I wonder who taught her that. It is so
ineffective compared to the juices from the groin
area or from phlegms coming from runny noses
or even infected lungs. Now, those would stick
for hours.

Had dinner at the chinese fast food place. My God.
The prices! Almost RM100.00 for so little. I could
have told everyone to walk further for a McDonalds.
Getting skinned by a Clown is more appropriate.

After the dinner, we went to the First
World Amusement where the girls get
to have their first Merry-Go-Round.
Unfortunately, there were some other
rides which, due to their heights

So, for the night, we let them have a go with the
Merry-Go-Round. Luckily, we do not have to
pay for accompanying the girls. But because it is
a new ride, they were very engrossed with the
horsies, so, all pictures came out with all their
faces facing away from the camera.

Surprisingly, even on a Monday night, the
place is still crowded, mostly with Tourists.
Imagine this crowd mixing with the usual
weekend crowd. Nightmare for demophobics

Eventually, they wanted to ride one these cars. But
we decided it was not to be so since anything could
happen when they panicked and wanted out.

So, we told them, *ahem* Kristine
was too tall and Kaleynn was too
short. Hee hee hee.

Finally, it was time to go back down and there was a
problem. As this was the first day in using the 'other'
cable car system, it was chaotic. Did you know that,
the bus for this did not have a sign to tell everyone?
So, when it came, it was a mad dash and most were
angry especially one Tourist who was so pissed off
he could hardly speak (in English). And also, did you
know that after eleven or so, the bus stop changes
place to another spot which is near some Hotel?
Thanks to a kind couple, we managed to get a
seat in the second bus. They even talked to
another bus driver to help too.

Ah, back to the Hotel and tomorrow........ yeah, man!

Our Uncle went to Australia and all we got was.....

Dear Readers,

Our Uncle went to Australia and came back with some goodies for us. Each of us had a nice fluffy backpack while Great Aunt gave us a blanket. Whoo hoo!

Thank you very much, Uncle and Great Aunt!


Love,

Kristine & Kaelynn

Kristine with her Dora blanket and
fluffy backpack

Kaelynn with her Sesame Street
blanket and fluffy backpack.

To the Bruce

Ok, bruce. I had sometime to think about this as the SOB project is on hold since I need to get some more parts. And so, while I was sitting there, unwinding my mind, I decided to note everything on this project.....

Yes, we have 5mm under there! 5mm minus 1.6 and its
just enough. But not so fast, sonny! See below!

But the legs, man. The legs! Maybe have to
drill the holes because the main display is
hitting his shins. He ain't got nowhere to
go, man and we can't kill his heels.

All is good here, 6 squares on the left and 5
on the right, but man, the SMT in the three
clocks in the middle is the pain in the ass.

You think this would work, hmm? Have them
buggers drill a 5mm in the middle la.

And also have them buggers drill one at the bottom
too. Else, ain't no way to see the lights, man.

I spoke to another about the fig and he might proto the clear across the sea. But a skilled artist is still not here yet. So, proto first, sticky up him ala firefly.

Bored on a Sunday Evening

And so, after telling them to shut the TV off, they got bored almost immediately. With no VCD to dance to, they decided to do something else. That is when Kaelynn remembered the pop-pops Mommy kept on top of the fridge, wanting to throw it away. This was one of Kaelynn's favourite things.

Pop-pops are small little fireworks which explodes on impact. Originally, they were wrapped in tissue-paper thus giving a tear-drop shape. Now, the modern ones were shaped like a tube, the size of those electrical fuses. And they're more 'sensitive' to impact too.

Once I helped her get the box of
pop-pops, the girls rushed out of
the door, ready to play.

Kristine ran back into the house, covering her ears
once she realised what the pop-pops were. Yep,
she is still afraid of fireworks and explosions. So,
this means more pop-pops for Kaelynn to throw...

Imagine if you dropped a carton of pop-pops on
the floor. One carton holds about, I think, 48 or
so. But it would cost me RM18.00 to find out.

And so, Kaelynn enjoyed herself for the rest of
the evening. Maybe i should give her the rocket
with exploding caps, one of my favourites but I
was more concerned about the gunpowder
going into her through her fingers.......

Almost there and giving up.....

Yeah, although its Saturday and what perceived to be a quiet day, it was not. I ma stuck in this project and there was no one I could talk to for ideas. It also did not help that THAT SOMEONE for some unknown reasons, caused my Notebook to go crashing. And it also did not help that the same SOMEONE called when I was soldering, causing a short in the board and killing one IC when I shouted and cursed at him.

This was not an easy project as I thought it would. I mean, how difficult was it to countdown from '999' to '000' and stop there until it is being reset? The answer, my friends, is easy and not so easy, depending on how and which solution you're aiming at.

The easy way
This was the route I took since the initial description was to have it countdown from 999 to zero. All I have to do is to get some off the shelf electronic kits and its done. And it fits my timetable perfectly. No problems, right?

Wrong.

You see, the problem starts when it was needed to count down from '999' as the circuit starts with '000'. Once I got a copy of the IC's datasheet, I realised why. And so, to get it start from '999' I would now have to hotwire the original circuit to load in the value '999' instead.

And then, as luck would have it, there is no clock signal to the kit which I must buy separately. And it must make the circuit count down very fast. So, I have to modify the kit to do that.

The third problem is that it must stop counting at '000' until a 'Reset' button is pushed where it would go to '999'. Which again, the datasheet proves the IC does not do that. So, this means I would have to obtain more ICs as I would need a few logic gates to do this.

Let's see, our original 7 IC circuit is now being
expanded to a few more ICs. And when it does
work, boy, its going to kill the batteries.

This is the circuit I am testing out on the white
prototype breadboard. It involves three ICs, a
transistor and a switch-over relay. My only fear
is that the circuit would be too fast to for this
sub-circuit to 'catch' the signals.

The not so easy way.
This is the alternative soluton to the same design but the end result is the same and/or even better. The catch? You have to learn the microprocessor's programming language. Compared to the 'old school' solution above which not only uses more than ten ICs, this one uses only one. Because of that, it saves power too. This is actually my backup plan and after weeks of trying to figure things out, it just came to me this afternoon. So, I'll just have to get the IC next week and do the testing, see if this idea works.

This one little IC can take on all 10 uncles and
without breaking a sweat. The only one sweating
is me, trying to figure how to tell it to work.......

Bored on a Sunday Afternoon

Minutes after lunch, the girls are bored. They have already been entertained by their Grandparents who came back from Singapore. I think they're waiting to disturb their Uncle who just came back from Australia this morning but he closed the door and slept for hours. So, with nothing else to do, they were left with their own devices.......

Kristine had to finish her drink while Kaelynn
was watching some videos on my Nokia 5800.

Then Kristine found out what I did to
my Nerf Scout and wanted to have a
go, saying that this is a very powerful
gun or something to that effect.

And so, after a few shots, she was disappointed
that the gun was still the 'same'.

Meanwhile, Kaelynn was laughing at the
'Deespicable Me' trailer where they were
on 'The Biggest Loser', with one of the
minions showing its bum-bum.

A bagful of Mausers

Well, well, well, after all the hoo-haa!

I've completely forgotten about this bag of Mausers. I bought them at that time because they look almost the same scale as the real thing. And this was quite some time ago before I realised their significance. This must be years old!

Lets, see..... one, two......

A Warning to Trooper Peter

TROOPER PETER!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT DAY TODAY IS?
IT IS A SATURDAY!
IT IS ALSO THE SECOND DAY OF HARI RAYA!
IT IS ALSO THE DAY I PLANNED TO FINISH UP A PROJECT FOR SOMEONE AS I DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME!

DO YOU KNOW WHAT AN E-MAIL IS?
THIS IS THE BETTER ALTERNATIVE THAN PM-IMG ME OR WRITING ON MY WALL OR OTHER WHAT NOTS. AND IT HAS A BETTER CHANCE OF ME SEEING THEM!
I WAITED FOR YOUR E-MAIL REGARDING THE ITEM YOU NEEDED FOUR NIGHTS AGO AND YOU DID NOT DELIVER! I WASTED THE WHOLE NIGHT WAITING FOR YOU WHEN I COULD BE DOING SOMETHING ELSE!

YOU DO NOT DO THINGS AT YOUR CONVENIENCE, OK? I AM NOT YOU SLAVE! I AM NOT SOMEONE WHO WILL COME RUNNING TO ANSWER YOU AS SOON AS YOU CALL!
IF YOU WANT ME TO HELP YOU, YOU DO AS I SAY AND WHEN I SAY! WHEN I WANT INFORMATION TO HELP YOU IN YOUR PROJECT, YOU WILL GIVE IT TO ME BEFORE THE DAY IS OVER AND NOT WHEN YOU THINK IT IS TIME! IF YOU RUSH ME OR GET IN TOUCH WITH ME MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK, I WILL DROP YOUR PROJECT! I WILL UPDATE YOU WHEN IT IS TIME AND NOT YOU CALLING ME. THIS PROJECT DOES NOT INVOLVE MONEY SO STOP TRYING TO ACT LIKE SOME HAS-BEEN BIG SHOT AND CORNERING ME AS IF I OWE YOU SOMETHING! WHY SHOULD I DO THIS WHEN YOU DO NOT EVEN WANT TO SEE ME AT ALL?

I WAS BEING EXTREMELY AND HUMANELY POLITE TO YOU THAT DAY ON THE PHONE EVEN THOUGH YOUR REPUTATION AT
MITF 2010 PRECEDES YOU. DO NOT EXPECT ME TO BE SO GRACIOUS THE NEXT TIME.

THANKS TO YOUR FACEBOOK MESSAGING ACTIVITIES, IT TOOK ME MORE THAN TWO HOURS TO RECOVER FROM A CRASH. I
KNOW ITS YOU BECAUSE THAT WAS THE ONLY ACTIVE WEBPAGE IN MY BROWSER. AND I LOST PRECIOUS TIME TRYING TO RECOVER THE HARD DISK!

FOR NOW, I AM EFFECTIVELY IGNORING YOU TILL 1ST JANUARY 2011. UNTIL THEN:

YOU DO NOT CALL ME OR SMS ME!
YOU DO TRY OTHER WAYS TO GET TO ME!
YOU DO NOT GET SOMEONE ELSE TO GET IN TOUCH WITH ME!
YOU DO NOT EMAIL ME!
YOU DO NOT PM ME!
YOU DO NOT EVEN PUT ANYTHING ON MY FACEBOOK AT ALL!
YOU DO NOT EVEN APPROACH ME OR TRY TO TALK TO ME IF WE MEET IN ANY EVENTS!

I AM NOT GOING TO HELP YOU UNTIL THE IGNORE PERIOD IS OVER. IN OTHER WORDS, THIS IS A VERY CLEAR INSTRUCTION TO YOU TO STOP BUGGING ME AT ALL TIMES!

IF YOU VIOLATE ANY OF THESE INSTRUCTIONS, I WILL BAN YOU FROM MY FACEBOOK AND MARK YOUR EMAILS AS SPAM!!!!!

[18:44 Update]
That's it! I am now banning you!
Can't even understand simple instructions!

NEVER EVER CALL ME WHEN I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF SOLDERING STUFF!

Testing the 6in1 Super Power Coffee

Ah, Saturday morning! What a wonderful feeling. Yes, its a wonderful feeling because I am home alone. There is no one else in the house except me. Which means, I can rush the projects in peace without anyone calling for me every few minutes or so. You won't understand how precious this moment is until after you are married, have children and fell that the World is passing you by. Oh, ok, if you really want to know, the feeling is like you watching your favourite movie with people moving about in your row trying to go to, and returning from the toilet every few minutes. Yeah, that's about almost right.

Anyway, this the time I can test out the coffee in peace too. I don't have to think about excuses or how to reply when people walk in and asks what I am doing/drinking/ etc.

The very first moment I got the packet open,
there is a very strong waft of coffee coming
from inside. It smells very coffee-ish and also
butterishly creamy. Compared to Chek Hup,
which just smells sweet and creamy.

Then I noticed those small little brown 'rocks'
which more or less resembled mini cat dung.
And things went downhill from there............

Maybe its a premonition or signs of things to come
because when I was boiling some water for the
coffee, all I could find was a small pot.

And when the water was ready, it refused to go into
the cup until I forced it to. I mean, it was going beserk
at the rim, sputtering furiously and throwing hot
water all time. I have never seen water being so
violent before.

And so, when it is ready, the waft has grown into a strong stench. So, after drinking a few sips, I must say this drink is ...... crap.

It has no body, tastes bitter and worse of all, the only coffee part was in the smell. In fact, if I added Nescafe into the drain water, it would come very close. So, in terms of ranking, here it is:

1) Cadbury's Hot Chocolate w/ Chek Hup Creamy Coffee
2) Hot water with fresh ground coffee powder and sugar
3) Milo w/ Chek Hup Creamy Coffee
4) Hot boiled Starbucks Ice caramel Blended
5) Hot Ginseng Teh Tarik
6) Check Hup Creamy Coffee with Amarula
7) Ice Cold water with Nescafe 3 in 1 (and a good mood)
8) Ice Cold water
9) Tap water at room temperature
.
.
.
.
.
.
100) The crap coffee I am posting now


The sad thing is, I have about 15 over bags left......... man, I can't even feed it to the squirrel or marinate chickens with them without being charged for cruelty to animals (dead or alive).

The shy guest

We know that the cat which I loved/hated is now never with us anymore. It has been proven and sad to say, we would not be able to have a proper closure. Its not easy to say goodbye to them and you never see their final resting places unless they got unlucky to become roadkill.

Just a few days ago, we spotted the squirrels coming and running about outside the house. It has been this way for years but somehow, they are more tolerable. That is, until today. You see, someone saw them and decided to leave an apple for them outside the window.

Unfortunately, the squirrel saw this and thought that this is an equivalent sign of a welcome mat. And unfortunately, they too thought there must be better choices inside the house........

And so they raided the apple bowl but stayed
clear of my brother's APPLE. how weird.

This was the original apple left outside which was
eaten bit by bit. Squirrels are shy and when they
sensed someone walking past, they will disappear.
It will be a long time before we can come near and
pat them (or make squirrel pi...er, pets)

Fibre-optics by the dozen Pt.II

Today, I am going to test the fibre-optics again, this time with a more 'common' lightsource. In the first test, the lights were normal three LEDs and because of that, the effect was well, a bit different. Each LED has their own 'place' in the container and so, because of the characteristics of a LED's angle of viewing, there are three sweet spots shining on the bunched-up end of the fibre-optic bundle. So, in the end, you have red, green and blue lights on the fibre-optic tree.

Anyway, the two light sources for today comes from torch lights; one being the traditional yello bulb and the other, a 3watt pure white LED. Before we begin, you must realise that this experiment is just brief test on how they perform. I was hoping for near 100% efficiency but then again, this is cheap 'fibre-optic'. Note how I used the word 'cheap' and quoted the fibre-optic words? I am preparing you for the disappointing moments that is to come.....

I am using a bulb filament torchlight here and
for the effect, it looks good despite my not
masking all the light leaks and also create a
proper connection between the lens and the
fibre-optic ends. Looks prmosing, right?
Also, this was shot in the morning light.

Note that in most of the strands, there are about
3cm lighted strands which is, on closer look, were
scored ti give that effect. A normal virgin fibre-
optic would just have a bright dot instead.

Here, I am using a 3watt LED torch light. Maybe
its the light spectrum but somehow, it does not
look that bright to me. Maybe I should have set
up a MR16 warm-white LED spotlight.

So, the verdict is, that these so-called fibre-optics should be able to do the job for any plastic models considering how difficult it is to get the actual ones locally. Then you might also have to face the problem of incorrect diameter, and most importantly, pricing. So, sad to say, these are as good as it can get.

This is because to get a better effect, you would need a brighter light source and when it comes to a brighter light source, be it light bulbs or LEDs, the heat generated could be worrying when there is no ventilation or other means of heat dissipation. In the long run, not only would it melt the plastic, it would also damaged these fibre-optics. Yes, even if you had the real firbre-optics, they are now mostly made from plastic as they're easier to work with and also have a better bending angle unlike glass.

So, the next step is to get the MR16 LED spotllight before I start making 'holes' in a model or plastic.

The Shower cap

Its going to be a very cold night tonight and so, Mommy wants the girls to have their bath but without washing their hair just for tonight. And so, knowing that I am as nimble as a drunken bum, she made the girls take turns wearing her shower cap.....

First, it was Kristine which she turned it into
some kind of fashion accessory.

Next, it was Kaelynn's turn. I like this shot
because for a fleeting moment, she looks
very grown up already.

And so, Kritine took the cap off and helped
put it on to Kaelynn who complained it
stinks....... ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Another shot from the front

The aftermath of the Storm

My friend's home was affected by the heavy storm two nights ago. And on that day, I can remember that it was very bad for me too. I was rushing to get the printouts to my customer and because of the heavy rain, I drove to the other side of the factory. Long story short - My GM witnessed how the gate got flooded off its railing when the guard opened the gate for me, trapping my car in the process. But luckily, I got a backup in my thumbdrive and so, in the rain, he saw me walked off to the office to email to my client instead.

Just after dinner, I got news of my friend whose mommy's house was affected by a tree. Despite my offer to help, she insisted that everythig is OK. moreover, with the mention of reporters, I stayed away since the possibility of being on the front page of a newspaper wearing nothing but a very loose pair of boxer shorts might damage my credibility as a potentially famous blogger of nonsense.

And so, today, we drove by to her house to kaypoh a bit and from the crime scene, it does not take a genius to tell the whole story of how it happened (then again, geniuses are hard to come by in this country due to the brain-drain). Apparently, the wind blew the tree so hard that its trunk snapped off and fell to the opposite side. Because of the leaves and strong branches which acted as springs, causing the whole tree to bounce away and into the alley behind the houses and blocking the drains. Which confirms my suspicions that out water comes from the drain since moment after this, I could not get a nice bath.

Either that or the Society of Overweight Squirrels were having their annual meet-up on that tree......

Making cookies

Finding things for the girls to do during school holidays is going to be a problem. Sure, we can just let them watch TV until their eyes pop out or they collapse from hunger. But that was too easy. The hardest challenge is for them to do other constructive things instead of watching the idiot box or, lying all over the place.

So, one of the program Mommy set up was to get them to make some cookies while making sure they retain all the female characteristics. Yep, Mommy wants them to be more female instead of playing with guns and taking things apart. Which, in this World where everyone wants or thinks they want to be, politically correct, I agree. I want them to grow up knowing a lot of things and not just stereotyped into thinking certain things are for certain gender, and cannot be approached and so on. Then again, she has had enough of one big kid playing with guns and taking things apart.....

The girls with the first batch of cookies. Boy,
the do smell delicious! And just eating one or
two, its very filling.

I like it but at the same time, wishing there were
some garlic and maybe, sardines inside the them.

This is the morning after. I wonder
how long I stand before all of the
cookies in this bottle disappears.....