Driving a 4x4

I have sat in my Boss's 4x4 many times and just to sit there takes on another perspective. For one, it is very high so you can see the traffic clearly and can avoid obstacles earlier. Two, you can cheerfully drive across flash floods while envious drivers look at you in their cars all bunched up on one side of the lane. Another aspect is that you can sometimes see a lot of things on passenger cars which you do not normally see. And lastly, although it is not fast, you still feel superior when it comes to waiting at the traffic lights, going through rough terrain and also, cornering on really rough roads.

And so today, for the first time, my Boss gave me the keys to menac....er, drive around town. usually he gives it to me on Highways as it was much safer. And although this is a big and clunky vehicle, maneuvering it gives me the shakes. But once I was mentally prepared, all I have to do is to take it slowly. Phew.

On the road, I noticed other 4x4s were not as high. I still
can't get the hang of coming down from it properly. Not
only that, I have to watch the petrol consumption too

And yes, I was smiling when I saw roads like these
although the brakes are a tad too stiff and not so
responsive. So, have to go slowly

And if there was a traffic jam, I would not hesitate crossing
the wonderful divider. Ha ha ha ha ha!

Weak Person

If I want to buy this, shall I buy it from a weak person
or go to a bigger store?

I saw this when I was browsing for a pricing indicator for fingerprint devices

You need WIn XP

I have been going to this customer on and off for the past few weeks and do I really get sick of going there all the time? Well, yes and no. Yes, when I go there and do small things like fixing a screw or become a consultant to them. No, when there are a lot of things to do there, which is not so frequent. And each time I go there, there are costs involved. No to mention, I could have been somewhere else doing other service calls.

Anyway, the main problem is that this customer has bought a lot of item from China from his last visit and we are "obligated" to fix and install them. Which is not much of a problem except that I need to find these items among the stuff in the first place as they were moving office. Not only that, other assitance such as scaffolding, forklifts and higher ladders promised to us were usually not available at the last minute.

And for the last two days, it was really frustrating for me......

Finally, we found the card that connects to the CCTV cameras
after so many weeks. But from my experience, this installation
would not be an easy one.

And after wasting precious time installing it on the wrong PC, we found
that the correct PC has only 56MB RAM and running on Windows 98

And the story does not stop there. The first PC does not have a CD-ROM
so I had to salvage one from another PC (which happened to be the right PC)
And the dang drive ate the CD, scratching it when it toppled. Luckily, they
had a (the only) DELL running (running on the only Windows XP) which
managed to read the CD. So, I backed it up on my thumbdrive and burnt
on another CD. So, on the next day, during installation, I got this screen.....
Haih. I want to kill everyone, I tell you.

And after a month of seraching, their door access system finally
appeared. And this is the first time I see a long magnet bar as
we usually put two side by side after some modifications. And
this China made one has three strips. Which, might be stronger

Armed with more information, I need to go back to my company for
more tests. Haih. I know we can install them straight away but I do
not want it to burn out halfway

And the story continues

Loh Mee

Whenever I visit my customer in Jalan Ipoh, I would stop by this place for lunch and if there are not too many customers around, I will order the Loh Mee. I discovered this dish by accident when I was having my normal rice. One of their customer ordered it and she really did cook it on the spot. Although sometimes it takes a long time, but when it arrives, they are really worth it. You will get ample amount of prawns, meatballs and the sauce is thick. And the other lady who serves you will asks if you need some chili sauce or the vinegar to go with it. And when sometimes you do not order any drinks, they will give you a glass of ice and some chinese tea.

RM4.50. Really worth it, man!

Nature

Sometimes, when there is a cloudy sky, there are some trees
or plants that "glows" and they are so beautiful. I was at the
Damansara Uptown parking lot when I saw this. I only took
this picture and not the whole scene. But you can imagine it:
You are sitting in a room, which is lit from the large window
outside. And just outside the window, are the tress or forest.

I have seen this image before, somewhere on the Internet,
which was actually, taken from an abandoned Hospital in
Japan somewhere

[Update: 03032008] Ha. I found it again here, which is a
great site for abandoned pictures buildings

The Doorphone

A customer was up to his ears trying to solve the problem of his doorphone. Apparently, his contractor, after the completion of his house, was very difficult to get through. I was not surprised as this is the usual procedure of anyone who had done their job and received all their money: Run.

So, by a stroke of luck, he discovered one of my customer has nearly the same doorphone as his and we were then referred to this guy. Once I came over, I discovered why the contractor does not want to pick up his phone. The is the problem with most contractors. Of you want a gate, he will get you a gate but he will never let the gate people deal with you directly. He might be aftraid you would discover the real cost of the gate and so on.

I have seen the problem and I will quote him another unit but we're not going any further than that. This was because if the cables were faulty, repairing them or pulling a fresh one would be a very difficult job. Moreover, since this is a house, do not expect to them to pay industry prices.

The contractor has stupidly cemented
the whole unit into the wall. After
digging the hardened cement out
for the screw, it still would not
budge. Time to call for more
reinforcements

The next few days, I got one of my guys
to use a chisel to remove most of the
cement. And what we found was not
encouraging; everything in there was
wet. But the cables seemed OK...

Just looking at the back of the
unit was enough to tell us that
it would need a replacement

Still, I was kind enough to redo his push button
doorbell. This one uses radio frequency to
activate the doorbell inside the house. All
you need is just a 12v car alarm battery.
But I stop at putting cement to cover the
sides. Still, if the customer wishes to buy
the replacment unit, the next time I go
there, I will also fix a small metal splash
shield for this doorbell

Two in One

Kristine wanted Kaelynn to sit in front of her during dinner
but as soon as both of them settled down, fights broke out
because the baby chair was meant for only one person.

Looking at the Big Picture on the poisonous World of Photography

Sometimes, I really do wish I had a macro lens.
Then I don't have to enlarge and circle these
pictures with red colour and arrow them too

Nasi Ambang

After my business with Real Rewards, it was time to head off to the West Port to see my customer. On the way there, I stopped by to get something for lunch. I usually like to stop by at Petronas. maybe I am comfortable with it for years. And sometimes, there are always something extra with these stations as they do accept "local" items for sale.

This is my lunch for the day. (L-R) Fish crackers, happy juice, nasi ambang and Joy juice

I don't know what nasi ambang is, and its only available at this
station. Even the one across the road does not have it. So, I got
one and its delicious! You get some coconut stuff, 2 big anchovies,
curry chicken and a lot of other stuff I forgot. Goes to show how much
I can remember things after two days or more. I must be getting old now

Has the clocked ticked for you?

I needed to go to the Real Rewards office to replace the broken card. Of course, I could have gone to the Mid-Valley office which is more convenient but then, I would have to wait for at least three weeks to get my card. Going to their main office in Subang means I can get mine on the spot. But this is not a "convenient" place for me this week as I hardly pass there until today.

Anyway, on the way in, I came across the old fashioned car parking ticket dispenser. I call this old fashioned because there were no sensors on the ground to detect the presence of a car (so that it would not issue a ticket wrongly). Because of this weakness, you could easily be a victim. When you go up to the machine, you will need to press the green button and after a nice clunking sound, your ticket would come out. And usually, you will never notice about the time stamped on it until it comes to the time you need to pay for the parking charges. And I love doing this trick, which is evil:

After you have pressed the green button, take your ticket. And then press the green button again but before you do this, make sure there are no cameras and other cars behind you. You can even do this while you walk past the machine. And cruel trick works even better the longer the next car comes by. And here at HeiTech Village, the traffic is slow. Really really slow.

Imagine you staying for only twenty minutes but the ticket shows you have been there for two hours!

So, the next time you see a ticket sticking out, pull it away and
press the green button for a fresh one, OK? After coming out,
you can use the earlier ticket as a bookmark anyway.

Dari Alam Anker - Puyuh

This is a local comic from the Artist, Puyuh (aka Leong Wan Kok). It deals mostly with horror tales and has bit of a twist towards the end. I think this is Puyuh's first book but I am not sure but this later book, "Dari Alam Angker, Twisted Mind of Puyuh" is much more refined and by then, his drawing styles are more or less established. For RM7.50, its a very nice book.

This is the front cover, I am not sure if they have
come out with the English version or not as they
sometimes do.

Some stories are in mono but its not the art which
kept me glued. Its the story.

Towards the last few pages were the colour sections.
Here, the comics have no voice bubble but you can
still follow the story.

One thing I am not happy was that they wrapped
the book in a weird sticky plastic which warps the
cover. You cannot peel it off either. I suspect this
happens when they packed the comics together
during delivery with those packing straps.

Elections

Elections. Like some Celebrations or events, it comes every four years without fail. And you can sense it is near by following a few symptomatic signs

1) just look outside and see any newly tarred roads that has not been tarred for years.
2) In the night, strangers would wear caps or T-shirts which have non commercial logos like rockets, scales and even an inverted green spot, hanging flags and banners on innocent street items like trees and bridges.
3) Find the source of all these and you will find very friendly people sitting under a makeshift tent. And their genuine assistance and smiles only come every four years.
4) All newspapers and TV would have short commercials or funny stories like how they helped the Rakyat, would be on all the time.

And that, folks, is Politics in a nutshell. To me, that is. I don't see the point in all this Elections thing. And not only that, if they're doing so well, why do they need to drum it to everybody, "Looook! I can plant a small tree! Look everybody! I can plant a small tree!" or, they will put a full page to "remind" their people to vote for the rigth party or they will pay the price. This is sickening. In the end, the usual will get their seats, go back to their castle in the clouds and start hammering the Rakyat for more money. As for the Opposition, they will bicker, break and then merge alliances and so on.

Sheesh. What a waste of time. Right now, things are what they are. There are no better political parties in Malaysia which anyone has confidence in voting for. Although some has good people in it, but the central core is bad. So, what else is new?

When I vote, I will follow my instinct. If a party is advertising too much or making too much "noice", this means, just like a bad product, is crap and they will use the ruse to cover the eyes of the prospect. In the end, the prospect will be confused and naturally, go for the competitor.

Some guy parked his 4x4 and tried to get votes.
Wanted to get his pic yesterday morning while
he was standing on a small lorry but I missed

How far can it go?

While I was about to pack my stuff after visiting the customer, the spot where I parked had a small rectangle "park". Since I had a bit of time, I decided to test the remote's distance myself. So, I set my D50 down on one end of the park and set it to receive the remote's signal. I just wanted to see how far it can go (assuming its using a fresh CR2025) battery. Some said it was about 16 feet (5.3 meters) on the Internet.

As I walked towards the end, I activated the remote at roughly every five meters.


Distance: 5 meters.
God, my backside is huge! Yes, I prefer loose jeans, OK?

Distance: 10meters
And my back looked weird

Distance: 15 meters

Distance: 20 meters

Distance: 25 meters or so
So, the remote is quite effective up to about less than 25 meters. But maybe, the distance could be more in an enclosed area since there will be no interference from the Sun (which is not only bright but a source of infra-red as well). Anyway, for it to be effective, the remote must be used straight since at any other angles, it will be blocked either by the lens or the handgrip. Moreover, I have yet to try reflecting the remote's infra-red signals back from a distance of more than five metres.

Lost control

I had a customer in Glenmarie today and since the Sun was not so hot, I decided to take normal route and not the Toll. After coming out of the old Airport road, I was faced with the roundabout there. As I went across it, I saw a lorry in a very weird position.

Judging from the skid marks, I don't think the driver was at fault but he was unable to control the heavy lorry. So, up the divider it went.

See the skid marks? There must be another vehicle coming out
from the left of the roundabout and maybe he is trying to avoid

So, this is the end result of trying to control a heavy vehicle

And if I am not mistaken, those are concrete he's carrying

About an hour later, I came back to see if the lorry is still there.
Its also a good time to try out the D50's 2.5fps capabilities

A day at The Curve

So, today is Sunday and it is a good day to continue with my sleep since I was "working" in the office the day before up to nearly eleven at night. Well, it was my fault as after preparing my tech for his first trip to Lahad Datu, Sabah, I was tired and fell asleep. Ha ha ha

Anyway, Wife wanted to go to a Popular Bookshop store and she suggested the one in Section 14, PJ. Knowing that the place will be vacated, I suggested other branches until we agreed on going to The Curve. Almost four hours later, we finally reached The Curve. It was a nice suprise for me as there was negligible traffic even at two in the afternoon. But our first parking choice at Tesco came up nothing as it was full. I decided to try parking at The Curve instead just to try my luck.

After getting our stuff done, I had to take all of them into the car since moving about in a crowded area with your hands full of shopping bags and holding the two girls are just asking for trouble. And while I as there, I spotted a Toyota Celica modified into a Transformers Decepticon Barricade. However, there are no lights on the top which makes it a bit discreet. Only a Transformer Fan would know what the owner was trying to do, even at first glance. And because our local Police do not have this kind of colour scheme on their cars, there is no trouble here.

After a very trying time at Tesco, we settled down at Madam Lim's for dinner but because the cooking gas ran out, we had to go to another place, namely Kenny Rogers, which was a bad move. Comments from Wife can be summarised to a few choice words; namely "fit for 'pigs' in a kenduri", "slow" and "bad service" or something to that effect.

Firstly, the rear section has been closed off and because there was no sign to say so, I went in there by mistake only to be countered with a rude stare.

Secondly, although the place was small and there were more customers on the outside, the waiters were not concerned that we have been to order. Everytime we put our hands up to get their attention, we were shown the palm,telling us to wait. And sometimes, I think they're not very alert.

Thirdly, the waitress takng our order seemed to be very impatient and tried to rush things. When Wife ordered the Fish Fillet promo, she just quickly said (in a slightly louder tone), "Wait, let me check" and quickly rushed into the service section. Its as if she couldn't be bothered with us.

Fourth, when the food arrived, it did not look like anything from the menu. The side dishes were mashed together with the "main food", and all in one plate. I had no problems with that but it did not go down well with Wife.

In the end, the bill was a shocking RM80 something. Which pissed me off as my budget was less than RM50. I have mixed feelings about Kenny Rogers. In other places, they had excellent food and service but the one in The Curve really makes me think twice about going there again. When Kenny Rogers (The Restaurant) started out, you could select your own three side dishes and scoop them up by yourself. Then they added the plastic TV Trays and the only thing you can do is to select your three side dishes over the counter, which makes you feel as if you're either in a prison or in a school. Now, (maybe just to save cost) everything has been dumped into one plate. So, imagine all types of gravy being mixed together.

Both Kristine's and Kaelynn's treasures were being washed

Everyone got mad when Kristine played with a pair of scissors

I got mad when she played with her new set of stamps

After the small break, we went shopping!

As the things we bought were heavy, I returned to our car and
off loaded them. Then I saw this being done to a Toyota. So sad

Then again, a Saleen is not so common in Malaysia
(Image taken from www.saleen.com)

This is mine: The Kenny Rogers Cesar Salad minus the croutons

This is a Kenny Rogers half chicken complete with shitty rice and some corn

This is the Kenny Rogers RM18.90 fish thingy, and it looked so delicious and big
Oh, since I am in a joking mood, the mashed potatoes are worth killing for as well

The stuff i got at Photo Shangri-La: Two packs of silica gel and 2 1GB SD card
I could not believe the price was RM33 for a Class4 SD card. Normally, I think
it would be three times more, but that was last year.

I did a test with my normal ex-HP PDA SD. Not really cared about
the speed until the D50 starts to show each shot in the "Playback"
mode. The refresh was so slow.

Me : Darling, did you see my pair of jeans?
Wife: Yeah, I just threw them into the washing machine

**Quickly rushed to the washine machine and opened the door**

Wife: Don't worry. I have checked the pockets and there was nothing in there

**Ignoring her, I searched the front pocket where I left the SD card in there**
**Sure enough, the card was still there and if I did not realise it seconds ago **
**this SD card (that came with the D50) would have been compromised by **
**the water. Luckily, although the jeans was already wet, because it was so **
**thick, the pockets were still dry. Phew! **

Lonely

We were doing another job at one of the prominent buildings in the Golden Triangle. Since my techs are busy pulling cables. I wandered to find the MDF room as this will be the place all Telekom cables would originate from. And someone has accidentally left the door unlocked. I peeped in and lo and behold, the scene presented me was awesome. Its like you opening a door and for the first time, get to see a something amazing.

After standing there fore a few seconds, the scene begs to be recorded. And on the very first shot, I managed (I think) to capture the mood in that room.

This is an MDF room. In its heyday, its a very important
and expensive room. No one could ever get in unless they
are meant to be there, which is very rare. Now, its just
empty, and dark. Very old but still doing its job

Broken UV Lens filter

I did not notice it until when I decided to look for any
smears on the lens. That's when I saw it. Apparently,
the glass had chipped inside the lens and is now in the
kit lens outer assembly. Must be from the knock I did
when I was moving too fast. But then, I remembered
its a very soft knock. Haih. Must get some sticky tapes
to pick up the minute glass pieces. Thank goodness its
on the edges and not in the middle or else it'll cost me

I saw my future self!!!

So, I got the D50, I got the camera bag. I have an infra-red remote shutter release. What else do I need? I already have a tri-pod which I always forget to bring long with me. What else do I need?

Why am I always thinking about my D50? Is it a sin not to take at least a few pictures a day?

And then, I saw it. I was driving the along Jalan Bkt Bintang, stuck in the traffic jam just in front ot the Pavillion. With no cars moving, and my nose's clean of booger, I had to amuse myself.

I looked out of the window.

And I saw my future self, or rather, whom I will be in a few years time. It was a shock

There I was, in my sling bag, holding a DSLR with some fancy lens hood and all looking serious. I have some other serious friends with me as well and we're all shooting around the Pavillion. Each of us took some shots and then grouped together to view the results. And continued shooting. We even tried with low angles and weird stances.

Oh my God. Will this be me in the future?