Phaser Rifle revisited

[This was a draft]

After having another chance to have a look at my Phaser Rifle, I was still not as enthusiastic as I wanted to be. But then again, this is what I get for what I paid for. OK, I admit it, I am lazy when it comes to resin kits. And the quality of this kit sucks. Really.

This is the Type III Phaser Rifle as seen in Star Trek:First Contact

nexus has already started the repair job

Looking at the casting, you would be disappointed too
As there is a lot of work to be done

But still, its my rifle

No phalus jokes, please

What I really loved about the rifle is the grip and the
rear part, which looked so nice

And it really fits nicely into my hands

Since this rifle is hollow cast, I have my work cut out
for me to design the trigger, even though its not
canon

Luke's Lightsaber

Student: Sir, sir! Come look at this!

Prof: Yes, what is…. Oh, my goodness! This is unbelievable!

Student: What is it, sir? My power spade just hit it.

Prof: Why, my dear boy, this is a 20th Century artifact! One of the most influential objects ever known to man! Luckily, you did not break it into two.

Student: But what is it? Why is it so important?

Prof: What is it? Well, to tell you the truth, I have absolutely no idea.

Student: Huh?

Prof: Looking at its shape, it is definitely made in the 20th Century. But I suspect it could be an early rendition of a power tool of some sort.

Student: Maybe, it belongs to this person named Gra…….. Graflex. I believe the name was engraved with a laser pen.

Prof: Nonsense, boy! They don’t even have portable lasers at that time. The closest would be those 890nm spectral emitters which they point to walls on images projected from a lightsource.

Student: That is a boring activity, sir.

Prof: Yes, I agree with you. In those days, those who attended such session could easily fall into Alpha state within minutes. Unbeknownst to them they were the origins of the sleep machine which we have today.

Student: Sir, look at the bottom here. It says “3 cells”. What does it mean?

Prof: Maybe it’s the tool’s power requirement, who knows. But this is rare and have never been seen for a very long time. Some even say it’s a myth.

Student: Really? Oh, look. this looks like some charging port, just like my X-1138 flyer

Prof: Yes, it does look like it but how could they tell the future? And here, even the power activator just looked like it came from my vibro-pen.

Student: But looking at this part, it looked like some kind of an aiming system. Maybe this is a portable photon emitter we hear so much about in the 21st Century.

Prof: Yes, you could be right. The barrel looks just like that very weapon made 500 hundred years ago.

Student: Well, I’d like to think it is a weapon of some sort but I have a feeling this crude piece of metal is meant for something else. Maybe it’s a power assisted dental cleaner.

Prof: I was thinking more of a portable sprinkler system of some kind….

Dean: Good God, Jenkins! Be careful with that! It is one of the rarest replica in its time!

Prof: What do you mean, my dear sir?

Dean: According to the ILM myth, this replica is an exercise to show a person’s devotion to the imaginary realm of Jedism. Building one of these replicas require much time spend on the stone-age system called the Internet where one could locate and compete with one another for the right to pay for these objects using an obsolete bartering system through a service called eBay. And sometimes, they would have to participate in a text based communication called a Forum to continue their search. Once they have built the replica, they would undergo a traditional ritual of holding it like a stick and waving it around while uttering words such as “wee-ooooooo”, “Impressive” or even, “Luke, I am your Father”. If I remember correctly, there was one such recorded event from an obscure magnetic media, titled, “Star Battle Boy” or something. The object which you hold in your very hands is a Lightsaber, and you can see its effectiveness from the educational archive titled Star Wars located in Fictional Fantasy.

Mom's Handphone

I think I am going to switch Mom's handphone from the
Motorola to the Nokia since she complained that it is too
difficult to use. I don't believe her as she can really master
the VCR well.
So the Motorola phone is waiting and waiting. But I don't
even have the time to use it even though I wanted to.

Fruit

After my trip from Penang, I stopped by at Tapah and bought some fruits

When Kaelynn saw it, she wanted some

Kristine was happy to have the fruits but told Kaelynn that
she has no teeth to eat with

Poor, poor Kaelynn

Cable Tracing

The Cable Tracer
Right next to the Multi-meter, this is the most important tool of all. It allows you to trace a cable, determine if its faulty or not, and even tells you other things. In the olden days, (like 8 years ago) when I needed to trace a cable, I would have to go to one end and short it. Then I return to the other end and use a Multi-meter to test it. So, if there are about 23 cables, I have one out of twenty three to get that cable. Once I get what I think is the correct cable, I would have to run to the other end and release the short. Then I come back and test that suspected cable again. By the time I am finished, my watch would have shown that about forty minutes have passed. And it the cable is long, is on the other floor or there are a lot of them, it would have taken hours. But once I use this tool, it would just take me minutes.

The tool, which I would call it the cable tracer, for simplicity, consists of two components. One is a small box with some cables and the other, looks more like a giant pen. You place the box on the pair of cables you want to trace and then use the amplifier (the pen) to trace it. As the box generates the signal on the cable, the pen will pick it up and you would have identified your cable. But sometimes, it is not that simple. Strong signals from nearby cables, especially where it is long or the cable was laid next to an electrical cable, you would have a weak signal. And if the cable is shorted or there is a problem, it would make the job even more difficult. So, this is where experience comes in. Once you have known how to use it, you WILL know what the problem is.

Using the cable tracer, the signal went to this
conduit and died at the crack.


Opening the conduit, the suspect cable
is broken

So, since I do not have the time to lay a fresh cable
(and I will not be paid for it), I decided to repair it
on the spot

It looks horrible, but this is the best I can do since
the main-con will not want to lay any cabling

In total, three wires had to be repaired

The Trip up North

We were required to go up to the North for these two days as there were five customer sites waiting to be completed. One was in Taiping, then two were in Prai and two more were on the Penang island itself. Although the jobs were quite a lot due to our schedule, it turned out quite easy. But what was on my mind was the journey itself. I think I tend to fall asleep more when driving on long journey in the day than at night. With the Sun shining so brightly and just the straight road, I will doze off, even with some music blasting at my ears.

The Customer in Taiping
We needed to check if the customer has enough extension ports as they have a new staff. And this would also mean that they would need phone cabling too. So, after our site inspection, it was time to move on to the next customer in Prai. Since today was a Friday, most of the staff have gone for their Friday prayers.

By the time we left, the argument was still going on. This because earlier on, there was a very aggressive young lady driving a schoolbus heading on the wrong way of a one way street. She had hit a young kid and instead of stopping the bus to help, she ran off. So, the kid chased after her and made her stop. And in the ensuing argument, she denied she did anything wrong and still continued scolding the kid. By this time, a lot of witnesses came forward and trapped the bus. Then her friends came and it was a stand-off until the Police came.

This is the customer's PABX which needs a card expansion

The Customers in Prai
By the time we reached Prai, it was already mid-afternoon. So, we had to work pretty fast. The new staff had moved in and there was no phone for him. So, we engaged the main distributor to solve the task. But unfortunately, even with three cables in the room, they were not able to solve it. And by the time we arrived, it was the same, so we improvised to get the job done. In this line of work, where time is never on our side, we really need to improvise. And thankfully, the customer does not mind at all as long as they need was done. In actual fact, if we were to pull a fresh cable, it would have taken us more than a day and this would thrown our schedule out of the window.

We saw this lorry in Prai which went into the drain

It took two cranes to get it out

Luckily, I think, the driver is OK

By the time we arrived to the next customer, it was already after half-past five and most of them had left the office. Luckily, the Manager was still in, conducting a meeting with his Sales Staff. They had complained that one of their phones were out and it was not done even when the main distributor came. But after one of their Sales guy plugged it in, the phone was working fine. Still, we decided to check the system out, just in case. And it took us quite some time because the system was installed, in, of all the places, under the trophy cupboard.

Of all the places, we could only find it here, in
front of the Manager's desk

The installer did the best he can, due to the limited
in the box

And will the day's work done, it was time rest up in our Hotel before meeting up with Loctor for him to give me a very important information.

This is a very big ABC Ice Kacang and it tasted

damn sweet too. Ouch

The customers in Penang

This one needed a bit more work as we require to install eight phones and an extension card. Fortunately, it turned out we did not need to do them at all. Unfortunately, we were required to do other tasks such as relocating three extensions, a credit card line, a direct line and a fax line to the floor above. Then we activated two ports for the contractors once they have completed renovating the Ground floor for two new staff. And the main contractor was quite upset, (not or fault) because their cabling contractor has pulled insufficient (telephone) cables and also pulled all the Network cables to the wrong room which has no ventilation whatsoever. So, I decided to help him out (on the phone part) and he was quite grateful.

When it came to moving stuff, you can be guaranteed that there would be a lot of confusion because everyone would try to help but ended up giving conflicting instructions or forming wrong opinions. When it comes to this, sometimes you really have to take control of things. For example, earlier on, the staff told me that they wanted to have their credit card machines next to their table but when we were about to implement, they would say other things such as moving to a spot where there are no cabling. I have experienced this before and after complying with their wishes, they would call us back and ask us to move it to their original position (because the damn machine was too far from their tables). So, having learnt from that, I put stood my ground and told her that it is better to put it next to her table, even if its bulky. In the end, the main con compromised and put a small table next to her (since I had made a good impression to him)

There! Its in the middle of the table.
Satisfied?

Later on, before we left, there was another extension whi
ch was out since 2005. This was the extension which I had prepared quite sometime ago but mysteriously stopped working after the new tables were setup nearby. So, I used my tools (and luck) to trace the faulty cable (next blog) and rectified it. He knows that the cable has a problem for a long time but he could not afford to get the cable guy back in time to rectify it since it takes quite some time to redo the whole thing, not to mention costs.

On the way out, we saw this old PBX, which I think is an OKI

And for a machine so old, it has already used SMT. Wow

The Arena, which is Jusco's Food Court, has enough

smoke to start a haze and it makes sure your clothes
remind you that you have been there. Not only that
but they managed to keep the irritating coupon thing
running where you have to order, get the coupon, go
pay for it and come back to wait in queue for your
food where the chef makes sure its as delicious as
wallpaper

The Queensbay Mall, so long yet so spacious.
It also quite boring since not many shops are
opened at the moment.

This is the new Waja, methinks.

It looked so wonderfully ugly
yet still unineteresting

This is the reason why one must not tailgate a lorry
because when it hits bumpy road, you'll know why.
Ha ha ha ha hah