An evening with the girls

Just moments before bedtime, Kristine and Kaelynn were fooling about in the bedroom. Kristine's new trick is to climb up the boxes, either sing a song, shout or read a book before jumping down on to the matresses below. Once I got over the shock, I began to take photos of them. Then I realised, my Nikon D50 does not have multiple exposures. Sill, it was fun to play with the speed and flash.

Both of them have been eyeing the
boxes for quite some time. Now I
know why.

So, they start with singing some songs
at the top of their lungs, or try to read
a book before doing the jump

Jumping 101:Step by step guide courtesy of Ms. Kristine

This is one of the better images of
Kristine jumping. The pink blur
behind her was the first flash taken
just a split second before the jump

Someone got too excited and stepped on a sharp object

No sane kid would do this type of stunts at night and so,
just to make sure, Mommy is checking for signs of brain
inside their skulls. None here, whatsoever, just wax.

And none here too. Very mysterious

Finally, Kaelynn got her own revenge for all the bad things
Kristine did to her. She jumped and sat on her elder sister
just when she was about to go to sleep....

I should have seen that coming.......

I was so excited about installing an ISDN line for my customer that I never realised I have overlooked some minor details. Prior to the installation, I have been running the "simulation" in my mind over and over again. And so, on that day, I was ready for the word, "Go".

Last week, my technicians have laid the necessary cabling and this week, it will be my turn. The ISDN interface card is ready and so is everything. We convinced them to go for ISDN because their normal analogue DID lines are always giving problems where power surge or lightning storms are concerned. Imagine the delay when we need to take the cards back for repair and so on.

Until I realised I have terminated the wrong type
of connectors! Horrors of horros and now, they
cannot test the ISDN until next week. Oops

The trip up North . . . Penang

We had to go up to Penang today to add two Digital phones and lay some cables. Originally, it was supposed to be a two-day trip, with us arriving in Penang yesterday (Monday). But because I felt that staying for the night would be a waste of resources, we decided to drive up to Penang at 0600 and finish or job on the same day.

Yeah, bright idea.

I was so tired the day before, driving up was really more of trying to keep myself awake on the roads. The same can be said for going back down again. And just my luck that my other technician was not talkative enough to keep me awake. I mean, a syllable or tow is just not enough. Still, we got the job done and by the time I reached home, it was past midnight.

What the .... Its midday and there is a huge trafic jam all the way
to Penang Island! Not only that, I had to pay RM12 instead of RM7
because we're driving a van instead of a car. If its a lorry, its RM25

We installed the system less than two years and its already
showing signs of environment damage. It was the same
reason we chnaged the system for them in the first
place. I think this year, I need to enforce them to
build the area into an air-conditioned room

Kristine's haircut

Kristine had her hair cut and although I specifically told my Wife not to chop off her long hair, I felt as if Kristine's hair has become shorter. . . still, I think we saved about RM10.

This is how she feels about her new haircut

Still, with her bangs cut like that, she
looked more like a China doll.

Building my PSU Pt 1

Today marks the first day of the two weeks school holidays in Malaysia. Which is a good thing because, not only does my Wife get to sleep in late, I get to go to the office early. Ha ha ha. Actually, there is a reason why I needed to go to the office as early as possible. I find it quite impossible to do my own projects even at home now. What with the increasing workload and all, its quite frustrating for me not being able to do anything to help bring in more income.

But there is also some things I need to get done as well. One of the things would be a power supply. The power supply I had built in my University days is getting on and although it can still be used, I would need another but with a more exact voltage. My dream power supply would be that RM380 version which I saw at Pasar Road (which features votages up to 30 volts and variable current output) but until then, I have to find an alternative. And this is where the PC power supply comes in. It will give me 12 volts, 5 volts and 3.3 volts when I need it. And if I want to, I can make a circuit to give me other voltages such as the 6volts and 9 volt ranges not in the power supply.

So, the first thing is, to get a PC power supply, which is not a problem since I have salvaged quite a few. Then the first problem would be in how to make a case for the power supply since it would look weird sitting there on its own. Anyway, while I had the time to think this morning, I decided to swap its internal fan with a Ah Beng version (which has green LEDs) which I bought eight years ago.

I came in 45 minutes early. Just in time to warm up
the soldering iron, remove the old fan and solder in
the new one before the technicians come in.

Saturday morning.............

Ah......... I am all alone in the office. Boss won't be back for another half hour while my tow teams are out on service calls. Just me and my Lemonade. Yeah, might as well use up yesterday's Ipoh trip's meal allowance....

Felton 2L container: RM12.90
2L of Lemonade: RM5.60
Remaining cash RM2.10

The trip up North ... Ipoh

Today, we are going up to Ipoh for a system relocation. This is because the customer is moving out of their current site and renting another place while the original site is being demolished. We received the go-ahead from the main contractor who requested us to start work today. The job is to dismantle the PABX system, bring it to the new site and set it up again but with new programming. So, we estimated this to be a two day job.

And once we had everything packed, we're ready to go. And I got my technician to drive the van since he got his license last week. It would be a good oppotunity for him to get the feel of the van. Although the speed limit for a commercial van was 90Km/H, he pushed it another 20Km/H more. As a result, we arrived in good time (while I pray he did not get any traffic summons on the way). As soon as we stepped out, we introduced ourselves to the customer informing them about the day's work. As we are going to take the system down, we had to inform them before hand. But what we got was a shock as they were not moving at all! He was kind enough to bring us to the new site which looked like this:

Yep. it is not ready for another month.

Even the site for the PABX is not ready

Everywhere, people were doing their job

But because of out job scope, we cannot more the system until the day before they are going to shift. So, this means, our trip was for naught. When I called the Main con up, he told me that the client did not tell him about the shifting. I was not convinced because I know he is new at this. So, in the end, this means our company lost RM220 for this trip.

In the meantime, my technician is enjoying "his" van
Sitting next to him while he is driving is like a father
teaching his kid how to drive (well, go ask YOUR Dad)

Still, because we won't be eating much, I used my meal
allowance to get a MIC Transformer for RM9.90 which
would usually sell for about four times months ago...
I could still search for the original but they're not on
the shelves anymore.

Yeah, he's very cute but I know, if I
open him up, I can put some flashing
LEDs in there if I wanted to.

Another plus point is that the plastic quality and
moulding is very high quality unlike your normal

MIC toys. Well, next month we're going up there
again, and so, I hope these toys are still on sale...

Bootleg Iron Man Nerf Gun

I forgot how it got started but the signs were there years ago. But the most noticeable were the Gundams, Spiderman, Ben10, Transformers and now, Iron Man. But for the most recent months, what they did was to produce one same toy and colour them in each series's colours. For example, Ben 10's Mobile phone would be green & black while Iron Man's would be dark red & gold. So far the toys affected were the mobile phone, a scope and a small gun. But lately, Iron Man's actual action figure has been copied too. But I am not going to buy them since their quality is a bit off.

Anyway, I got this instead. A copy of a NERF Nitefinder pistol. I am not sure if the original Iron Man toys uses this even though they had the NRF 425 Blaster (and also used in the movie). However, its not uncommon as the NERF Maverick, Nitefinder and another pistol has been shamelessly copied years ago. Anyway, the original costs about RM35 while this copy is selling for RM9.90

This is the "new" Iron Man NERF pistol

Compared with the original (bottom), they are quite similar.
Maybe I should call it the Lingam gun,
"It looks like it, fires like it but it's not it"

If you look closely, there are many differences. Here,
the battery compartment for the original (right) uses
a small screw to keep it shut whereas the copy uses a
simple plastic tab which might break after some time

The original (left) uses a simple red LED and a plastic lens
which you can adjust/align until you get a perfect hit but
the copy uses a laser diode instead which, by the way, is
out of alignment as it points to the lower left. Still, its a
very good source for me when I take it apart later

Subtle differences here at the barrel. Nothing much
important since if I want to modify it, the barrel is
the first thing to go

Another non important difference

Apart from the near similarities, I do get six black darts
which is kept together with a very strong cellophane tape
And I broke one dart while trying to open the packs

Working undeground II

It was two days later that we got the extra cables we needed. And so, after an hour of dangerous work, we got the cable done. And from there, the responsibility goes to the other team who will terminate (connect) the cables.

Again, we have no cones, etc. except
for the piece of wood which served
no purpose other than to obstruct
us. Even the cars ignored it

Erm, well, it was a tiring job, you know.

Then, when we reached the main MDF room,
we discovered the maintenance staff was busy
breaking the lock put there by Telekom. This
is very weird because they do not "own" the
room. The maintenance Dept. and Telekoms
have been fighting over this for quite some
time, resulting in a lot of broken locks

Once the door was opened, then
I understood why. There were a
lot of expensive equipment in the
room. And I was dumbstruck in
there because its like discovering
a very quiet and intimidating place.
You wouldn't understand but its
like suddenly discovering a hidden
long lost secret room where all your
favourite things since childhood
were kept.

There were cables everywhere, all neatly arranged and
tied to. Whoever did this is a Master of his trade.

So many wires and connections...

In the end, the job is done and what
is more surprising is that we managed
to pack all two scaffoldings into the
van! But of course, its fuel consumption
went sky high.

Fever!

Both girls are down with fever for the past few days and we had to take them to the Doctor. Must be the haze as for the past few days, the temperature has risen quite a lot. I had to fight my own sore throat and mouth ulcers despite drinking two litres of water everyday. It took us more than two hours waiting for out turn as there were a lot of sick children and they were taking more patients even after the last hour till closing time.

After the visit to the Doctor, we got her a party mask

Working undeground

Some time ago, I mentioned about pulling cables for one of our customer in the basement parking lot. And so, today is the day. As my job is getting more and more, I had to split my team into doing different calls before meeting at the place. By the time I have finished mine, everyone was already there, including my Boss. Earlier on, they have already pulled the cable from the keyphone system one level above and now, we are going to concentrate on the basement area. Its not a tiring job but somewhat dangerous. The problem is because of the (green) cable tray located in the middle of the ceiling.

It is also very high and we had to borrow some scaffolding to get the job done. As we're working, someone had to keep a look out for cars and steer them so that they do not hit into the scaffolding. (OK, so we have no budget to get some warning cones, reflective vests and some hazard lights. Besides this is a "one-off" job which we do not do very often). For the rest of the evening, it took us about two hours to pull the cable over a distance of about 200 hundred or so meters.

The job is very simple. One to lead the cable above, one to move the scaffolding, one to move/follow the rest of the cables along and one to make sure the cables to do not tangle or cars hitting into the team. But the time we finished, all of us were very dirty thanks to the dusts accumulated from the cable tray.

The block which we're working on, had power failure.
So, it was very dangerous is a car did not see us. My
Boss's and my white LED torch did not help much.

As you can see, his hands are very dirty

We all had a slight panic at one time because the cables really
did tangle up. And if we cannot untangle it, we would have to
pull back the cable and redo again. Luckily, we managed to
untangle it at last.

Actually, it is not fun to sit on the
scaffolding because its rickety,
and you have to make sure the
guy moves it straight.

We had to stop here because we're about 50metres short
and there are no more cables. So, my Boss would have to
get more cables before we can continue. One roll of these
cables are not cheap. Its near to a thousand ringgit.

Some of my techs were fooling around
as we drove the van around the car
park with the door open. Since we
cannot carry the scaffolding back
to the office, we had to chain it to one
of the car park's pillar. Ha ha ha ha ha!

So busy........

Losing my Ass is one thing and working like I've lost my Ass
is another. Still, how I wish I can sit on a park, with the kids
running around us. I like the park to be an island, just like
the one in the picture. With the wind wafting in between the
buildings, filled peaceful urban noises around us. Bliss!

If not, I think I am going to do worse than this fella.
Work is pilling up again, and there is no breathing
space for me again. I am going to suffocate soon.

Driving a Honda City

By the time I came back from Sepang, it was already seven in the evening. My Wife and the two girls were already entering my Sister-in-Law's Honda. And so, after much persuasion, I followed them to dinner at BSC's Chillies (again. Yeah, my stomach has not even finished digesting last night's session). And so, she passed me the keys to her Honda City.

Not many people know that I hate Honda cars. But there is something at the steering wheel that changed my mind. And then, just a short distance to BSC, I secretly wished Chilies was kilometres away because I started to enjoy driving it. Wow. OK, so my mind is changed. OK, you can make fun of me now.

Still, I am a bit worried about the body work. For you see, the front of her Honda has a dent, which I can use my fingers to nudge it back and reshape it. Talk about soft metal.

The red circle on the Honda which a Toyota Vios does not have.

The could also be another reason why I loved that car.
Maybe its the durians inside it. Ha ha ha ha!

A simple wiring job at KLIA........

Its a very simple job, really. Everyone took one look at the photos agreed. But you know me when it comes to simplicity: Nothing is simple. The job is to relocate the system and its junction box so that the server rack next to it can have its doors closed properly and also, so that a person can enter behind the rack easily without pretending to be Ally McBeal.

Things went wrong the moment we arrived at KLIA. Usually, to gain entry to the cargo area, you would need to spend a lot of time waiting at the gates so that the Customs people would let you in. And if you're lucky enough, the second gate would take an even longer time. But unfortunately, we got past both gates within minutes instead of the customary two hours. Because we arrived too early, we could not start work at the documents said "after 1130". And we had to wait until after 1215.

And after five hours of work, the customer thought that we did the wrong thing. The original plan was to move both system and junction box to above the fax machine. Initially, I wanted to suggest to have them move vertically upwards near to the ceiling but as soon as she had shown me the sketches done my SOMEONE who FORGOT to tell me about it, we followed the plan. Unfortunately, this plan was not "approved" as the customer assumed we would take it to the Manger who will then approve it. Unfortunately, that SOMEONE assumed the customer would do it instead. By this time, both of us were dead tired and were in no mood to counter anyone and so, I diplomaticlly told the customer, we followed the plan and also explained the logic behind the move. By the time she agreed, both of wee already rushing out and into the van to go home because it was already past five in the evening.

Moral of the story:
If the customer is clueless about everything even after the meeting, never ever let the customer have a lot of free time watching you as they can start to think about things.

This is the phone system and its
junction box. The phone system
is almost 15 years old and is still
working fine. Go Toshiba!

I let my technician mark and remove the cables out
of the junction box. Indirectly, I am training him

I quietly snap some weird photos in
the office such as this radio with a
makeshift antenna tied to the
sprinkler system

Half an hour later, it was all ready and we removed the
junction box, leaving a square hole on the wall.

After much drilling and stuffing, the
new relocated junction box is ready.

Ta-daa! All done! And this is where
the customer has started to think...

As for the hole in the wall, my technician came up
with his own solution.

See the difference? The juntion box before (left) and
the one I rearranged (right). The customer was very
impressed but wanted it moved elsewhere....

At the Customs, we tore our bands. My techician mentioned
that it reminded him of going to Sunway Lagoon. For me, it
was more like going into the Zoo. Both places needed tags
like these.