The trip I was not supposed to go.........

This trip to the East Coast, was meant for someone else. However, we had to wait for most of the orders to come in so that we could save a bit of cash and go there one shot. Then, the customer's Big Boss demanded we go at once and not wait any longer.

In the end, I had to go instead. We were actually waiting for the Kota Bahru order but it did not come in time. So, now, my quest is to go to Temerloh, two Kuantan sites and Kuala Terengganu, all in one day. Yeah, you got it. ONE day. So, there was a lot of planning and this time, I would be going alone instead since passengers would only slow me down.

Its not easy, you know. So, I had to start my journey early in the morning so that I can reach Temerloh by 0830. Remember, the van's speed limit is 90Kmh and not 110 or Speed of Light. So, by 0600 or thereabouts, I was off. Unfortunately, this time, the weather was a bit hot and therefore, the Karak Highway was devoid of those wonderful mists and I had to contend with the normal morning dew. By the time I have solved the problem in Temerloh, it was time to go to Kuantan as I need to start my journey to K. Terengganu before two in the afternoon. It is the last stop and there is a reason why I need to go there before Friday as this state considers Friday as rest day. Not only that, I am planning to use the Coastal route which has a lot of traffic (and more petrol stations).

The first Kuantan site was actually away from the town and therefore, I had to exit at Gambang toll and travel a bit from there. Since the General Elections are coming up, there are a lot of Political flags and posters. And with emotions running high, I have to be very very careful when I am driving up there. By the time I have finished the second Kuantan site at two in the afternoon, I only had enough time to grab some tidbits before starting out. Luckily, this customer has a lot of coffee and Milo which helped me a lot.

By a rough calculation based on the distance of K. Terengganu from Kuantan, I should be able to reach it by 1730. Unfortunately, there were some factors I completely forgottten; mainly heavy traffic (read: slow drivers or lorries), people going home and lastly, getting lost (since the original map was not mine). By the time I reached K. Terengganu, it was 1845 and everyone was about to go home. Luckily, I managed to convince them to stay this time. Its very easy to get lost here because of my reliance on the road maps, which is not really accurate at all. At one junction, it showed a roundabout but in reality, it gave way to a 4-way junction. Then, the road signs are very small. And they're not printed in contrasting colours.

Once I finished my job at about eight in the evening, it was time to go home. And so, starts the long eight hour lonely drive back to KL. By the time I reached home, it was almost four in the morning and high on caffeine and whatnots, I could not sleep until about 6 or seven. So, I SMSed my Boss that I won't be coming in until after 11 in the morning. I was down for the count, man.

What can I say about this trip? Not that I hated it because I could not stop and go visiting shops or have a proper meal or stay one night in a Hotel. A job is a job and that is what I am there for. But the highlight is that it was a full moon and I did managed to get some decent night shots despite the absense of a tripod. Actually, in my heart, I think I wanted to go to Kota Bahru, especially the Rantau Panjang market.......... hee hee hee hee.

Its quite early and Mr. Sun did not rise in a normal way but hid
behind the clouds before jumping out and heating everyone

This is a scene in Kuantan where they tell you whom not
to vote for. Its parodied from the "Tak Nak" ciggie ads

I drove all the way here for this. The autodialer is not
working properly and I can verify this with my patch
(left). So, I bypassed the autiodialer (right) so that the
customers can still make calls.

The remnants of a Lion Dance. After everyone has gone,
and all the confetti. mandarin oranges cleaned up, its
business as usual. Not sure if they're going to cook it

This is the last exit ever on the Highway. Last year this does
not even exist. Depending on the General Election, work might
or might not continue. So, if I still want to head towards places
like Terrengganu or Kota Bahru, I would have to detour here

My Lunch. Some crisps and LongJack! Ha ha ha ha.
I am not sure about the joke but it was funny then.
Yes, it contains Tongkat Ali! But it sure tasted like
shite. Very bitter to the taste. I am tired, that's all

Somewhere on the way to Terengganu is this marvelous bridge. All
the flags are blowing in the wind but once you reach the other end,
its full of Opposition Flags

"Don't go, OK? I just arrived. Please give me some time to do these batteries"

My dinner. More Tongkat Ali, leftover lunch crisps, potato bread and
sugar in the form of F&N softdrink and Mentos sweets. No, I am not
going to dunk the sweets into the softdrink. Its now about 9PM

Four in the morning! I am so tempted rush out there and do
a dance in the hopes of the traffic cameras catching me in the
act before I reach my house.

They have a rat!

bangkokboi SMSed me in the afternoon but I was too busy driving. So, later in the night, he called to say they have a 3Kg baby girl. No name yet, though.

And he conplained he had to drive all the way to Penang at three in the morning. Too bad he did not take photos/movies while he was in the room.


Congratulations!

Flash Light

I got this flashlight for RM1.50 from one of those cheep cheep DIY shops near the office. Its means mainly for cyclists or people whole love to jog/walk on the road.

Or you can just fit it to your bum and call it the
Third Brake Light, or you can put as many as
you want on your whole body while you jog.
Do not be surprised when you read
tomorrow's papers about a red UFO....

Taking it apart, you have the reflector, the red lens/cover
and the electronics itself. It uses two AAA batteries.

There are about eight flashing sequences which you
can select by pushing the button at the back.

Aw, rats

Is it just me or what? This is the fourth time I have
encountered dead rats. Some kind of message for
me? Or is it just my luck?
BTW, I believe this was done by dogs and not cats
as the area are full of dogs there

Connectors

When it comes to connectors, it must be able to do its job
properly. Any loose or unreliable connections can jeopardise
a system. When I saw these type of connectors on a Toyota,
it all makes sense. Its also a far cry from those connectors
which are exposed to the environment. All it takes is for your
car to go into a big puddle and that's it. The end

In my set of tools, I too have some connectors. But they're
more of a patching system so that I can connect one set of
cables to another while I am testing the system.

[L-R] BNC to RCA connector when you need to test a CCTV camera
with a modern TV.
BNC to BNC coupler when your RG59 cables are too short or you need to
patch to a longer cable
I forgot what's it named but this is a very common connector for me as I
use it very often when it comes to testing telephone systems

Lawak Kampus Rebound

Yes, another local comic (strip)

Its quite nice. And the sick humour is quite
theraputive.

.
And in between, some serious artwork
to derail your sick train of thought.
Out of five stars, I give it drumsticks.

The Aircon

After so many months, when I visit this system again,
I still have worries. There are so many things that can
go wrong. For example, when the air-con really fails, it
can drip water down to the power supply. Or when the
"wall" fails (as it is made of plasterboard) either when it
got wet from the air-con or someone puts weight on it...

We were not consulted when this room was built, OK?

Sleeping on the job

When your machine's toner is low, it goes to sleep

Sweets

I'm bored. I know I can just use the camera's timer to shoot
this. But no, I had to go and use a tripod so that I have the
excuse of being able to use the remote

Dinner

This was shot seconds before Kristine wanted back "her"
chair which Kaelynn was sitting on. Once they switched,
we had to stack another chair for Kaelynn who could only
put her head up at the table. Control, control. Cannot lose
anger in front of the kids for something trivial like that....

Cabling

This is what happens when you put a heavy object on it
Not only that, you move the heavy object a bit and you
kicked the cables a bit while manoeuvreing around the
heavy object.

Turtle Saga

Some gweilos were talking to a Policeman while he is writing
on a notepad (saman?). Everyone was watching from a far
distance as if there was some street show. Sent this photo
to The Star's Thumbnails as well.

Testing the ML-L3 remote

OK, to answer all your questions, the ML-L3 is an infra-red remote with an effective range of about 15 feet, more or less. It is not using rf (radio frequency) but a DIY electronics circuit can be done. Just like light, you can set the remote to bounce the signal but be aware, it must hit the in sensor (which happened to be very sensitive over a wide range). And because light cannot pass through five floors and a comforter, it si not possible to use the remote this way, unless you either make your own rf (radio frequency) to ir (infra-red) circuit or you drill a hole through five floors (and the comforter) and then insert a fibre optic cable and point it to the Nikon D50. Oh, not only that, practically, this remote works on most Nikon cameras. For the list, you'd have to Google it. Some places are selling compatible remotes that work with more than one brand of camera too. You can search for this on eBay.com or lelong.com.my

Depending on your camera setting, you could either take a delayed shot, fast shot or just bulb. This is very important when I want to get a nice shot at low ISO while using a tripod. My normal procedure would be to set everything and then use the countdown timer which, sometimes, tend to make me lose interest.

So, if you want to use this, in my case, I would set the camera on auto-focus to get the clearest shot, then switch it to manual before I activate the remote feature. Otherwise, the camera would auto-focus or try to auto-focus everytime you press the button on the remote. Which is not a good thing if your subject is fast moving or hard to focus, etc.

Here I am, testing
the ML-L3 remote

Replacing the switch's bulb

I know I blogged about this somewhere but I forgot where. Anyway, this type of switches are plastic and they do not have LEDs in them. Only bulbs. See the "12V 20A"? Its the maximum rating the switch can accept before it goes bye-bye. So, you can use 3volts, 9volts, etc. anything less than the rating stated on the switch.

Anyway, you can replace the bulb with an LED on this switch as earlier on, the idea came to me when I noticed thin wires coming out from the two holes onto the switch's legs. So, I carefully pried the red rocker cover (and watch out for the tiny springs and contacts jumping out), removed the bulb and then pushed a 3mm red LED in. You could try other colours but because the cover is red, they would look very weird.

Now, all you have is a rocker switch with a red LED inside it. Do not forget that you have to solder a current limiting resistor onto the LED's leg or it would have a very short lifespan when you try to light it up directly. So, if your circuit is using 12 volts, then the appropriate current limiting resistor is 500 Ohms.

I think I have a photo of it taken apart but I can't find it.
Moreover, its now past midnight and I don't have the
tools to open it up again. Hee hee hee hee

Suicidal Beetle

Saw this on Federal Highway. One thing nice about the
D50 is that I can switch it on, aim and shoot. All within
three seconds or so, while I was driving the van. Ha ha ha

The Enterprise-D Cutaway Poster

This is my second poster and I forgot if this was the original long version as they reprinted it on a smaller version. The first one, I gave it to a friend in Scotland as it was too big to bring it back since I had it framed. And I could not remember how I got the second one except that its here. I thought I had lost it to the termites but after finding it again, I was estatic. However, the fungus has gotten to it already and I can see some brown spots in the poster. I am not sure how to get rid of the fungus or restore it.

The reason I am asking is that I am going to get it scanned and when I save enough, I will get it printed as transparency or something which I will then frame it and backlit from behind. Then hang it from a wall somewhere.

So, now, I bought some PVC tubes to secure the poster.
No more paper tubes as they're not effective against
termites. I think the poster costs me 18.99 pounds

Clearing up the mess

Yes, its one of those times where we (try to) train Kaelynn to go to the toilet.


From here, I can guess she had a lot of mandarin oranges
After 3 minutes, the flies start to arrive....

Local Comics

[This was a draft] 23.03.2008 Its been such a long time and I forgot a lot. So, when I am free, I will try to read them again. Or, maybe you could go and buy one yourself and see how they fared.

After searching high and low, I finally got Pupeteer's first comic called Velosity. Its a story mostly about revenge in a motorcycle gang. His artwork is a bit raw here unlike his more polished "Evolusi Identiti" but its interesting to see how the two books differ with time.

This is called "5 Elemen" and its also a very interesting read. But beware, do not try to draw parallel with Luc Besson's "5th Element" movie. You'd only be disappointing yourself.

Look Ma, no hands!

While I was in Pasar Road today (because I had a valid excuse to go there, OK) I went to Pudu Plaza's photo shop called YL Camera Service. I think it was originally located under an escalator before but I am not so sure. Actually, I was eyeing this shop for months when I was looking for a replacement to my dead FujiFilm camera. They do sell a lot of second hand cameras and lens as well, plus other new equipment.

Anway, I summoned all my courage and went it to have a looksee. After talking with them about the D50, I decided to enquire about the infra-red remote controller. I was thinking about this for days and today, I decided to blow caution against the wind and bought it.

And after everyone has gone back, I decided to play with it in the office. Hee hee hee hee

[Clockwise from topleft]
1,2,3 They let me try with the remote in the shop and I tested from almost a few angles
4. See the Nikon D200 there? RM3750 Body only!

[Clockwise from topleft]
1. The ML-L3 remoe is very small, so, can easily get lost wun. That is my thumb
2. It takes a CR-2025 battery, which I hope got stock
3. What the..! Buttons are soft membrane wuns la! Haiya!

Test shots with delay flash and lots of jumping about on the floor!
Some are missed timing and some nearly hit the table where the camera
was. Had to use manual focus or else the lens would try to focus first before
it starts to take the picture which would result in more delay

For Nexus

I was there today and these LED
strings costs less than RM50 for
the White and Blue while the rest
are less than RM40. Its slightly
less than a metre and runs off
12 volts DC. The next door
sells them twice the price
but is slightly longer

Poor Kaelynn

This morning, I had to bandage Kaelynn's right toe and
right thumb. Her toe is still a bit dry and so the skin are
still cracking whereas on her thumb, the fingernail is
about to come off. Curious as she is, I do not want her
to pick at it and then pull it off. Sure cry wun

OK, truth is, I just want to take shots of the fingernail

when it finally comes off. Bad Daddy

The morning after.....

I did not have a good nights sleep last night. I just remembered it was Valentine's Day. Before this, I used to get my Wife some stuff on Valentine's Day but from Johor trip, I could not get her anything. Still, I gave her something this morning and I won't know until I get my ass off from the office chair.

Still, the two day's trip caused me a lot of worries as we did not actually have enough cash. At all. The main priorities went to the van's petrol and toll. This time, the petrol was a bit more than usual since there were three person in it and we carried a lot of gear. The night in JB was the next thing that zapped our resources since I was hoping for a night's stay in Kulai which I believe, could cost us between RM50 to RM100 and not RM195. So, for lunch, dinner and dinner, we had to go ultra cheep cheep. Luckily the Hotel had Buffet Breakfast which I told the techs to stuff themselves. But after one serving, we all sort of gave up since the quantity was there but not the quality. Hiah Hiah Hiah.

Mr. Credit Card helped me buy this very hard to find model kit

The receipts from tolls, petrol, meals etc. I have to get
them sorted out before I forget what is what

Finally, I relented and bought an expensive RM12.90
handsfree kit at a Highway stop. The RM5 handsfree
was broken and the next RM5 was not working too
well. Yeah, I go through them like crazy. Either that
or I have to donate to the Poiliceman's Ball

Shots in the Dark

So, after our dinner we decided to walk back to the Hotel. As we neared the Hotel, we took a left turn too early and ended up at this playground. So, I told my techs to go on ahead while I try out some night shots. (Little did I know, the route they took, the same route I followed afterwards, ended up nowhere and I had to go out and make a big circle to go back to the hotel)

What attracted me earlier was the sound of the kids playing there with their Father. Once I looked on, with the lights on, the playground is quite nice. But with so much shadows, and with the sound of the children, it can be a bit weird. Anyway, i decided to take some shots of the playground and its surroundings since the night has a nice cooling breeze and was not raining. But I do realised that I was quite lucky that night. Halfway out of the place, as soon as my eyes start to ajust themselves, there were some people all in the park afterall.

But all I can say is, I should be bringing a tripod wherever I go. And a small torchlight. Definitely a small torchlight because the D50 does not have light at the control panel and I had to rely on streetlamps to see the settings.Haih

This was fun to take. I laid the camera on top of my Temjin
model kit on the floor and then used a timer. But when I took
with with a flash, it was not so nice.

I had to keep as still as possible with the wind blowing. But I realised
that if I took one shot and then lift my finger up and try again, they
would come out very blur (if you magnify the picture). So, I set it to
take multiple shots while I hold the camera and took the best one.
But for the swings, I just adjust the EV setting and it was fine

If I set the White Balance to others this building would look horrible.
But in the old days, it would look nice with everything reddish and
all yellowy. I decided to set it just he way I saw it. Yeah, boring
The shot on the right, was in an alley and I tried to convey a very
lonely/quiet image. Guess I failed. Even the moon was not full,
using manual focus and taking multiple shots was the only
solution.

I took this shot last year and decided to take it again. But its not very good
as I did not have a tripod. However, the bottom shot is what it looked
like during the day. It looked better in the night, as if it was a scene
from Blade Runner.

Centrepoint

Finally, after dropping off my technician at their house, I now can concentrate on going to Bandar Utama's Centrepoint. No, I am not going to hang around there and shoot pictures of people who failed to get what the want during the Valentine's Dinner.

I go there because of my monthly Iron Man comics which I go as often as I can (like every 4 months ha ha ha ha) when I have the time.

I took this at the front between the escalators. I suspect I could get
the whole shot in if I could just hang from the floors. Or I could just
sit with my back on the glass and put the D50 next to my balls.......

Going down South

Just a day after returning from Taiping and Prai, we're to go down South. I know, I know, we'r not supposed to work until the Seventh day or so but to the customer, its an emergency. Our (finally confirmed) destinations are:

Day One
Seremban, Melaka and Kulai.
Spend a night at JB

Day Two
JB and then Batu Pahat
And if there is time, back to Seremban (just to check)

But because of the rush, we only managed to finish the Seremban and Melaka call as the person in charge in Kulai refused to wait for us. I know his Boss well and he would wait for us because he knows we travelled far. But unfortunately, today he was on leave. Anyway, we decided to travel to JB to spend the night there instead of in Kulai. We were there for the first time and it totally sucked. We reached JB just slightly after seven in the evening and after checking in to a Hotel, we decided to go for dinner.

Now, this is where the "tidak apa" part comes in. I told my technician that since from the Hotel window we can see, two shoppping centres, we have a choice on which place to go for dinner. And as usual, they don't mind, so I chose Holiday Plaza in the North instead of Plaza Pelangi on the East. And then, I asked them I decided to walk since it would only take about 30 minutes if its OK by them. And yeah, they replied "fine", that is, until halfway, they realised it was smarter to take a cab instead as they were winded. Ha ha ha ha. So, I scolded them for their indecisions and I told them the next time, to voice out their opinions or else they would suffer again.

By the time we reached Holiday Plaza at eight, it looked very deserted since most of the shops were still closed for the Chinese New Year. Oh well, that is great news for me since I do not have to spend any money for DVDs. But I was wrong. As we were looking for restaurants, I saw a poster shop (WuMeng Enterprise, F117A, Holiday Plaza, Jalan Dato Sulaiman, Taman Century Johor Bahru, Tel/Fax: 07-3347450) with the Iron Man figure. Once I entered the place, I saw the Hasegawa's 1/100 Virtua-On Temjin Type a8 model kit form the new Virtua-On Marz game. Since they only had four different versions of Temjin, I chose one with the pondan pose on the cover as they all looked alike to me anyway. The reason I was so interested in this model was that it could be lighted up. However, there is a problem in the sense that apart from the clear parts, I have no idea if the other parts of the robot must be lit or not. So, I will have to search the Internet for more information.

Since none of us were in the mood for fast food, we decided to walk out of the Plaza and ate at some mamak stall in Jalan Harimau (I think). And on the way back, our shortcut took us to a small playground. I told me technicians to go ahead while I stopped to take some photos in the dark. I think I should take my tripod with me next time as I had a lot of problems when my hands start to shake.

[Clockwse from topleft]
1. My breakfast: eggtart's bakgua, leftover Yee Sang, a slice of cheese and sandwich spread. Very dry as everything came form the fridge
2. Over the night, my left hand swelled up due to Gout attack. And I have to drive this morning since I am the only one with the GDL license
3. I wanted the keychain viewer but i can't smoke. So, I decided to sell to my technician but he pulled out after I bought it. Later, I gave the pack to the Hotel Bellboy as he wanted to buy some ciggies from my technician and he couldn't go out of the Hotel since he was in uniform. Not before I made him move the extra bed here and there.
4. One of the problems we encountered. Someone tampered with the Lightning surge protector.

[Clockwse from topleft]
1. One of my Techs taught me how to buy 4D (ahem) so its my first time gambling!
2. A heavy breakfast from the Hotel's morning buffet
3. I finally got this shot as the one I got with the FujiFilm was not so good
4. Stupid cabling contractor only pulled tha cable and saved money by not wiring it to a box
5. One of my technicians who finally sat at the back and slept. Must be me complaining all the way about his smoking.

[Clockwse from topleft]
1. Electron fever is here too
2. Tow truck being repaired
3. I stopped the van and was about to cross the road to take photos of the plants when across the road, a Police 4x4 chased after a speeding Singaporean car. I changed my mine after that.
4. Some trucks are really powerful. Here's one on our tail as we're not powerful enough to escape the hill
5. I think this tanker got burnt just outside Seremban