Shapes

My mind was thinking about a project today and I actually have two designs to choose. However, which design I wanted depended on one thing; which shape would present to me first, would be the final one. But after looking at all sorts of bottles and shapes, I decided to go with the two designs as I have not found what I was looking for.

To an ordinary person, this is an empty
drink bottle. But to the trained eye, this
is actually a Camelli Mixed Berries. To
my Wife, it should be in the dustbin.

What does this inspire you? A Star Wars
weapon barrel or some Sci-Fi thruster?

And this? What does this remind
you of? A Jet Engine perhaps?

Unfortunately, to some its a skin cooling solution.

And a deodorant for inner arm for others.

[Update: 02102010]
OK, rather than pouring the whole deodorant into the trash, I decided to use it. Compared to the normal spray ons, this is very very difficult for me. Remember the feeling of scracthing your fingernails on the blackboard? Yep, its the same. I can never get over the feeling of running ice-cubes on the armpits.

Anyhow, after some trepidations and false starts, I got it on. And throughout the day, I kept smelling the deo and I was sweating like heck. All over the body under the hot sun except the armpits, that is.

My second real Star Trek Prop

Thanks to Mr. Whizz, I am now a proud owner of a Star Trek Medical Prop. I was so happy because it arrived on my desk this morning. My first was actually a Roddenberry Endgame Tricorder which I won from eBay years ago.

And now, this is my second prop. For those who are not familiar, this is actually a Hypospray. Think of it as a futuristic syringe where it delivers the drug/solution into the patient without painful injection. Slot in the vial, touch it to the skin and press the button. Voila!

And his kits are very reasonably priced too. If you want one, you can give him a shout and tell him I told you.

I like the way Mr. Whizz used Okudagrams on
the address labels. Its very imaginative and
could also easily pass off as a prop in a place
where replicators are a luxury.

And his model skills are amazing! I have yet
to find any severe issues with them. What I
got was two resin parts, two machined metal
parts and three glass vials.

Now, all I need are modelling skills, something
which I seriously lack. (Why do you think I do
Electronics, instead)

View from below

Everyday, I see people using this magnifier
to check on print quality. I wonder what would
be the case if the prints are alive and decided
to look up.........

Yeah, enlarge this a trillion times..........

Dumb drive

Don't know what's happening to me lately. Must be
the stress of the Sales. I usually carry two thumb-
drives. And just this morning, I grabbed a red AA
battery instead of a blue 4GB Kingston. Must be
the Phaser project that was affecting me.

The Lesson of Hotness

Yes, I know, there is no such thing as 'hotness' but it was more or less, to me, fit this post. Kaelynn has started to try eating spicy or hot stuff. Maybe its because she saw us enjoying the chili sauce or the curries. Or maybe, she was just starting to like them (yeah!)

Anyhow, tonight was her second attempt in trying to eat hot stuff. It all started during dinner where there was a packet of curry mee. Since I neglected to tell everyone that my mouth ulcer's gone, I get to eat porridge every night (yum yum) and so, when I spotted the packet, I heated up the curry so that I could mix it into my porridge. As Kaelynn was having her dinner, I asked if she wanted some of the curry mee, which is actually mee hoon.....

And so, I get my curried porridge

While Kaelynn gets her curry mee hoon.
She is learning how to use a chopstick too.

Yum yum! She knows its hot but still, she
persevered.

Yep, she likes them curry mee hoon!
Note the wet nostrils........

Delicious, right?

All if a sudden, she grabs her water tumbler

And after almost finishing the whole bottle.....
Man, this girl got guts.

Pelaga no more

Not sure why it closed. When I was there, the telling signs were all over the place. Handful of customers, easy-going staff, no sign of management, etc. Not sure how happening it was at night but then again, most of the shops in these blocks were not doing that well either.

As I was passing by this area, I saw that
the Pelaga Park Kafe is no more. I used
to go to this place a lot in my previous
job as the customer was nearby. Loved
the dishes served there. Expensive but
to me, it was worth it.

The project that cannot be named

Due to the secretive nature of this project, I have no other choice but to encrypt it, as requested.


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Being the Strong, Silent type

You now, maybe I AM getting old. because you see, I was dealing with a customer on Friday and there were a lot of critical comments on our prototypes for their next year's product. They would say, its too short, its too long, to thin, etc.

Now, if I was the Engineer 15 years ago, I would have taken each comment and defended them with relish. Not only that, I would point out the errors in each of the customer's statement and rebounded them with interest. At the end of the day, I would be the winner. Yeah, man. Whether the customer feels it that way or not, its none of my business. I have successfully defended my product and showed my vast experience and intellect to the customer. Yeah! After that, the customers dread to see me and either let me have my own way or just try to come up with more attacks which usually failed.

But fast forward to now, I would just smile, nod and listen. I would even help them in reinforcing their statement. Why? Despite my urge to be the 'greater', I just kept my mouth shut. Call it experience if you must but I have seen so many of these customers before. And I know the results. So, there I was, being commented my prototype being too thin and they even used a ruler to measure their own current product against mine. And what do you know? I actually helped them measure it as well. And after all the hoo-haa, they realised, mine was actually thicker and with more content. By then, the would have also realised the situation and in order to let them get back some dignity, I just smiled and let them withdraw. And they became very nice to me after that. In fact, every time I meet them, they are eager to see me, and with a warm smile too.

See the difference?

At the end of the day, everyone came out the winner. And not only that, I got a nice handful of chocolates to take home for my girls. 15 years ago, I would have this feeling but by the time I wake up the next morning, its all forgotten and replaced with complaints from the previous meeting. See the difference? So, once again, its all thanks to one Manager, Mr. Brian Gan for taking me out of the technical doldrums and made me see that there is actually a grey area between the whites and blacks, a maybe in the land of yes and no.

Different kinds of cakes

So, there are three different kinds, from
lobak to yam to well, well, pumpkin!

Dancing Queens

The girls did an impromptu dance routine and so, in a flash, I took my Nikon D50 out. Its way faster and more reliable than the Nokia 5800.

Well, I am stumped on this one.
How did she learn to make such
faces, I don't know.

NERF Appreciation

What the....?! This time, its RM119.95!

This is the new NERF Stampede for RM250. Since I was
in a rush, first glance it looked great and all but why the
need for batteries? Auto-fire? Hmmm....

New LED lamp strip.

I was at Pasar Road today and with limited cash resources until pay day in 2 weeks time, I decided to have a look-see on the new LED strips. They were on sale weeks ago but I never did have the chance to take a look at them properly. But today, when I saw the demo, I was sold!

These are the new LED strips which as SMD LEDs
on 3mm fibreglass boards. yes, they do look very
fragile and at RM15.00 per strip, I do not want to
stress test them. The power requirements are the
usual 12volts but needing 0.2A of current.

At almost 18.5 inches long, it might just be the
thing for one "Mr. Chin from Sabah". And when
I worked out the prices, it might actually be
cheaper than what I am planning to do with the
normal LEDs. But bear in mind, the light shines
in one way.....

I took this shot at home and believe me, its
very very bright.

There is another one, but with the much
bigger SMD LEDs, almost the same ones
I used for the Iron Man Arc Reactor. I
did not ask the price since they are much
more expensive with the plastic tube and
a remote control unit.

Kaelynn's Bathcap

Its one of those cold nights where mommy would not let the girls wet their hair during bath-time. And so, the only solution would be to use a bath cap since I am hopeless in keeping water away from their hair.

Kaelynn with her very own bath cap after she
commented that Mommy's stinks.

Another great chili?

Just so happens that I actually had time to go to lunch with my colleagues, what with all the chaos around me (that will be another story one fine day). And the best part was that the food she ordered came with a very delicious looking chili sauce. Fortunately, it was too hot for her and so, I get to have the rest.

Boy, this chili is good. Just right after I took the first bite, I started to sweat. Its hot, and well, a little bit oily, I think. And the secret I think, were in the chili seeds left on the plastic dish after I finished it. Wow.

The only things missing were the chopped garlic
and spring onions. Boy this is good!

Shedding my skin

Just the other day, when I was scratching my back, I was shocked to see so much 'lou lai' (grime) on my fingernails. And usually, this is the area which is hard for me to wash with soap. So, I washed again and again but they still turn up. It was not until this morning that when I saw my skin flaking off, did I remember that I had sunburn the week before. Phew.

Yes, I am wearing emerald underpants today,
thank you very much.

The Microscope

A microscope. Wow. I mean, if i had gotten this when I was young, I would have a lot of fun with it. But now, all I can see is .............. a potential Sci-Fi prop. Months ago, when I was looking for a simple magnifier, eBay pointed me to this. And it was all mine as soon as I shell out more than USD29.00 (but I just checked today, its dropped to USD9.99. Darn). Anyway, there was another version which my Boss's Boss bought in KL months ago, but for RM70-odd.

I liked that one but the price for that in eBay was too much.

And so, this microscope costs me RM35.00.
I k now, its cheap and won't last long. Even
at a simple glance everyone would know its
made in China. Besides the cheap microscope
viewing plates, it also has a base which acts
as a stand for the device.

Here, you can see the lens and also,
it has its own light source.

And the LED is pure white, which
surprisingly, despite its size, does
its job well. And it uses those coin-
cell batteries instead of the AAA.

Unfortunately, this part also tend
to fall off as there was no secure
proper mechanism to secure it.
All they used was a screw which
has no threads to bite into.

The reason why I am so worried was
because of the small metal part which
is supposed to be 'glued' to the bottom
cover is loose and not only that, it is
very oxidised. One day, I have to
glue it in place because if the cover
drops, its hard to find them back.

Anyway, now its time to test out the microscope.
I chose my old shaver blade and used a magnet
to stick it to the base since its very slippery.
But no maggots here, though. Phew.

OK, this is how the shaver looks like

Under the microscope, at 20x magnification.
Although I can see well without the glasses,
the Nokia 5800 has problems. And actually,
the image is very bright compared to this pic

At 30x magnification, you can see most of the
crap but somehow, the Nokia turned all the
details into black shades.

At 40x magnification. I wanted to focus on
the blade but its very disorientating when
moving the blade as everything is opposite.
When you move it inward, the image goes
outwards and so on.

Mooncake Festival 2010

Being an absolute and 100% banana, I did not know that today is Mooncake Festival Night. It was not until my Wife SMSed me to remind me not to work too late tonight. And also, maybe its pure coincidence that I went about Jalan Raja Laut looking for 'stuff'. And so, I happen to come across a real Chinese lady who sold me some LED candles before I could tell her I do not understand Mandarin. However, when she mentioned RM6.00, it all became clear.

Last year, these candles were on sale in eBay but the prices they commanded was ludicrous. And here, she is selling for RM3.00 each, a fraction of a fraction of the price. What is so specail this time was that apart from the almost real flickering of the LED, when you blow it, it will go off, just like a real candle.

Silly old me went and bought them, all the while thinking about the wind/air switch that can be salvaged. Little did I know, there is no such thing and these Chinese were ingenious when it came to solving that problem.

The girls were happy with the LED candle because
although each have their own lantern, there were
no candles. So, Kristin had the bright idea of using
them on the lanterns. Clever girl!

The girls demonstrating how to switch it 'off'

And so, under the bright moonlight, I had
lens flare.

Still, the girls had their fun, thanks
to Kristine's smart thinking. And no,
we did not put idea into her head
either. So, Boys and Girls, I suspect
it must be the milk powder at play.

I had to use the flash to take some
shots as it was too dark.

The mystery of the wind switch solved.Its actually
a microphone in there, connected to a microprocessor
(black glob), acting as a sound switch. This is because
when you blow through the hole, it creates noise for
the mic and so, it swithes on or off. In other words, you
can even clap your hands or place it near a speaker
for some funky effects. Heh.

This was a 10 second exposure shot for fun where
I told the girls to stay still. Something which is
incredibly hard for them to do...... ha ha ha ha.

The tough Kelisa

Spotted this while I was on the way back
to the car. If the owner raised it higher,
it would look like a very cute mini 4x4.