Eye see Rings!

Gosh. What an idiot! The answer has been sitting on the table, right in front of me and I did not even know it! How stupid can I be? What am I talking about?

I am talking about how to make your goggles in your costume light up, of course!

This is the LED ring which comes in a few
colours from red, cyan, white, warm white,
green, pink, and purple. And by putting 12
volts into it, its bright. Very bright. I had to
use flash to counter this.

How to use it? You just apply double-sided tape on
it and stick it onto your car's main H4 headlamp la.

But I have other ideas. OK, so this is me
forgetting to use the flash. OK, after
holding it for a while, it tends to get
a bit warm. But not warm enough
to burn you, think of it as eye
warmers for the Winter. And
if you wear glasses......too bad

Now you see the idea? The outer ring is just 1.5 inches
while the inner ring is 1 inch. ButI am starting to wonder
if I can duplicate it since the whole ring is made from
cheap SRBP circuit board instead of fibreglass. Yeah it
can be done but can the PCB guy do this? That's the
question. And the most important question is, what the
hell do I really need more than 20 pairs as there is
minimum quantity and not just one or two.

This how to light up the eyes!
Image taken from Final Fantasy Wikia

So, this is how you do it, place a diffused material
in front of the ring while you look through it from the
other side with your eyeball.

Who broke my window?

Or maybe, I should have posted, "How I spent my Tuesday today". Just woke up this morning, and was about to get drive to work when I discovered my right car window was open. Which is a bit odd because I did remember the day before that I closed all my windows before I lock the car. Since I used the car in the mornings and evenings, it was pointless to switch the air-con on during the journey. And so, I took a closer look......

0730 The Discovery

Someone has smashed my window!

How did I know? Because this fragment told me

After inspecting my car, nothing was stolen. And
when I looked at the shattered fragments, it is
very likely that something small hit the window,
maybe a flying stone. Or a stone.

The picture showed that the weight of the shattered
glass caused it to tear the tinting off and fall straight
down. If it was intentional, the glass would not have
folded that way.

Nor the way it fragmented as there is no tear in
the tint, except for the part where it came off
from the frame of the door. Funny thing was, it
was parked outside a busy road and not one
single person noticed it too. Until I started to
take pictures, that is.

0930 The Wait
Well, I can't leave the house right now because someone had to send the girls off to school. And so, while I waited for help, I decided to use the time to 'repair' my car. There is nothing else I can do since my friend's shops won't open until hours later. Funny thing was, I did not feel any anger but sort of expected things like this would happen one day. Could it be someone I pissed off on the road? Or was it just pure luck as I am very sure I was the only car parked that night. Maybe something happened across the road as drunks are becoming very common. But if this was intentional, must be the gold tints obscuring the view inside, someone thought the boxes I kept inside were valuable or the meters on the pillar were worth more. Maybe even the RM1.20 was the target. But no, nothing was touched. I had an in-law who experienced this a few times a year but this was due to business rivalry or maybe the competitors feared him.

And so, after all these weeks, the things I bought
are now being put to use.

Out goes the cacat windscreen spray

Out goes the cacat turn indicator lamp assembly

Out goes the..... nah, its going to be in there since
the lamp did not include this.

A few minutes and some dirty hands later, I got
this Ah Beng windscreen spray installed and no,
I am not going to use the LEDs.

1121 The Search
The first thing that needs to be done, apart from telling the insurance agent, it to look for the new window. As the car is no more in production, there is no way I can get a new window. Then again, 'new' is a very subjective word. And so, my Dad and I agreed on the same course of action: The Chop Shop. Since his favourite shop in Jalan Ipoh has mysteriously disappeared, we tried Kepong instead.

The wonders of these chop shops is that whatever
you're looking for, there is a very high chance that
you will get it or, at least a clue where to get it.

For RM50.00, I was so tempted to turn this into
a shelf. I was disappointed the window was so
small. But when I placed it on the frame, it just
looks right. Oh well.

1200 Lunchtime

We only have about half an hour left and there was only enough time to drive back home, rest for a few minutes and then go get the girls. But darn, Krsitine has extra classes until two in the afternoon. And so, we can't do much until after two in the afternoon. And I was not happy since I saw a very dark rain cloud forming in minutes.....

This was what I got for lunch. Or maybe, I should
tell you the truth. This was what I could afford for
lunch since my wallet's dry and there was no time
to go finger the ATM.

And so, with my slightly-upset-but-not-too-upset-
and-still-feeling-shocked mood, I did not have a
nice lunch. Turning it upside-down did not help
either. It just made things worse and this took me
more than an hour to finish. Oh, alright, I was
surfing and examining why the voltage
regulator in my electronic circuit got so hot.

1426 The Workshop
And if you cannot, you would have to find someone to do it for you. However, The problem with getting parts from the chop shop is that you need to fix the part in yourself.if you brought your own parts, chances are, the workshop guy would either charge you more for 'labour' due to missed business opportunity (the window) or, he would not do it at all. Luckily, my Dad knows his mechanic and so, I relented. Then again, I had to because I only had RM17.00 in my wallet, and that was before packing lunch.

The very first thing that they did, apart from
opening the whole door assembly, the rubber
in the frame, the switches, the screws, the old
plastic sheets, the speaker, the cables, was to
remove the glass from the door. This is a very
important step so that: 1) They do not have
cut wounds, and 2) When you drive away, you
do not hear any rattling sound, thinking it was
a screw loose inside when they were loose glass
in there. Ha ha ha ha.

Took a shot inside the door with my Nokia 5800

And for the rest of the afternoon, we spent the time
talking about the Boss's Nikon D80 with 1:4f 50mm
lens. Dad was lost because we were using a lot of
jargons like 70-300, AF, SD, ML-L3, etc.

1634 Back to Normal
Well, not exactly. The window is fixed but not the tint. Now, wherever I go, everyone could see inside the car and look/gape at the DIY meters I have. Maybe, this Saturday, I need to find the time to go to Ken's and see how much it would cost to re-tint. But this time, maybe not gold, maybe not so reflective, and something within JPJ spec, la. For RM90.00, this is as good as it gets. And so, I told my insurance agent not to file any claim. Luckily, it was not the rear window because they are notoriously expensive. A decent one, in the late 90's would have cost about RM1000 but now, its RM600. Which is still obscene.

I still want to believe it was just an accident or something but some glass shards that splattered to the other side disputes my theory. Almost, man. Almost.

1901 The Shopping
Once I got back home, Wife called and said we need to get Kristine a Chinese costume for her school photoshoot on Thursday. Great, because with the Chinese New Year just gone, its not going to be a walk in the park. With nothing at Mid-Valley's JayaJusco, Wife remembered Kamdar. Which is good because I do not want to go all the way to central Market or shopping complex hunting after what happened today.

And so, the girls posed with the costumes.
Notice Kristine standing on her toes to
make herself taller than Kaelynn. In the
end, we only bought one.

Then it was off to dinner...

OK, so she needs more practice
with her chopsticks.

This was after we agreed to buy bags,
(yes, bags) of candies for the girls.

Back at home, the girls with their
candies just before they were to
go to sleep.

Sigh. What do you mean you have homework?

And you? Got or not? No? OK, you can play
with my Nokio 5800 but make sure you do
not smear plum juice all over it, OK?

Opening a new Account

My old Boss is laughing. I am very sure that he is. Or, when I tell him, he would be.

For years, he has been trying to convince me to use this bank but I refuse because I was doing a lot with Maybank. And if I open one then, I would have to take the cash from that bank to Maybank, deposit it and then use the online transaction to go stuff. But now, it seems I have to do this. Until I set up that Bank to replace Maybank, that is. Yeah, and I am so lazy this month. Ha ha ha ha.

HR Officer: Here, take this letter to that Bank and show them. Then you can open the account for Rm10.00
Me: OK
Bank Officer: Youwanttoopenanaccountright?
Here,fillthisformandsignhereandhereandhereandhere.
Me: E, ah,....letter.....um
Bank Officer: Soyouwantacardaswellright?
OKOKsignhere,here,hereandhere
Me: er.........ah..........um
Bank Officer: ThatwillbeRm250please
Me: er.........what?!
Bank Officer: RM250.00please
Me: But I gave you the letter!
Bank Officer: Thankyoufortheletter, RM250.00please
Me: mmble....mmnerulb....here!
Bank Officer: Thankyou,here'syourcarandhaveaniceday!

And that was it. I gave them the letter which was actually a guarantee letter. Then the HR Officer told me, I should have gone to the Indian lady (who was out on Lunch) as she is not that strict.

Haih. Luckily I got some cash left after I quit........