The Hangman Game from OVI Store

OK, I was bored. So I downloaded this game for fun. Unfortunately, because its free, it needs Wifi connection all the time which is not fun at all when you're in a place where the only form of entertainment were day old newspapers.

This is your very first clue. Well, since you
have chosen this topic, you should more or
less know what is in store...

If you still do not know the words to
put, here is a second clue. But I wont
show it to you right now.

After putting in some vowels and
taxing the brain a bit, its a no-
brainer already.

What? You still don't know? Its
Mel Gibson!

Yeah, this is fun but without Wifi, its really useless. The reason for the Wifi link was because so that they can download some ads into the game every now and then, which is a win-win situation for the publisher, the mobile phone operator and everyone else except you.

Hitting the 400

OK, so this is it! 392KM and its starting to flash!

After finding the nearest Petronas, I filled it up with
another 26.3 Litres. But this time, there is no 'extra'
bar... Still, I am very happy anyway.

Almost there...

Most of the boards are OK now, I just need a few
more tweaks and that should be it. I am hoping
to that I will have the precious weekend to make
all of them working... and as for the notes, its
getting there.

New IC socket

Continuing where I left off my with BSG project, I finally found the SOIC to DIP adaptor again. So, this time I can create another makeshift adaptor board for it to fit into the programmer. Initially, I can just use the original adaptor on the Picstart Plus Programmer. But because its a 'mature' product, which is another way of saying its obsolete, the PIC I wanted to program it too 'new'. And I do not want to risk downloading the new version of MPLAB as the last time, it caused a lot of problems.

So, the easiest way is to create an adaptor for the adaptor to adapt to alternative programmer.

Its a very simple idea. All you need to do is to get
some sockets and some connecting pins and then
solder them all into a stripboard. The only problem
is to make sure no pins are short circuiting its own
neighbours or failed contacts.

And after testing and soldering and testing, the
adaptor is completed.

But because this is a 28-pin adaptor, it is very chunky
and tend to fall over. Which is a big problem because
of the pins beneath it.

Well, it sits comfortably on the programmer without
much problems. Now, all I have to do is to get my
old Toshiba working again to test if the PIC can be
programmed at all.

Tic tac Toe

Finally, after so long, I finally got the chance to play Tic Tac Toe with Kristine. Its going to be very exciting because she has never played before and I think, saw a few examples of other people playing.

First, she drew up a grid.

"I win!" I said, but she added, "I win too!"

OK, so this is going to take some more effort....

Broken already

This is the second time I have experience broken toys. The first time was many tears ago when I found back the Captain Powers action figure. The golden plastic on his hands were so brittle, it literally snapped of when you touched it. There and then, I realised that Malaysian climate is not so friendly to toys, especially when you want to keep them for years. Maybe its the plastic used or maybe its not climatised. But whatever it was, I have decided not to keep anymore toys if I can help it....

The latest casualty was this Rock Man. His waist was
snapped. At first I thought it was the girls who did it

But later, as i moved the knee, it just broke too.

Man, this sucks not because it costs me RM5.00 but it brought back the nightmares of broken toys. Sill, there is nothing much I can do with this toy since his head is not proportionately sized. But i am starting to worry about those small Iron Man and Star Wars ones...

The crack

Few days later, the crack is all repaired and starting
to literally 'blend' in but not enough. This is the real
size of the crack. What you saw earlier on was the
air bubble trapped in the player beneath.

Perodua's Infinite Concept

Once again, I was at Perodua's Office and man, I have never seen an a more beautiful Alza. This is the design which looks quite 'comfortable' (I have no other words to describe this). but if this came out during the launch last year, I would have booked it there and then.

This is the only Alza with a darkened transparent roof.

And looking at the sides of the car, it is already very nice.

Not sure if this is the original headlight but its nice too

Even the steering wheel design looks quite good but
I am not sure about the Start/Stop button even its
there for Ferraris (I think). I mean, imagine turning
the wheel and accidentally press on the button when
you only wanted to increase the volume or something.

I am not bothered about the seat but look at the middle
console. There is a armrest instead of a seat for the
third person like the original Alza. By this time, a lot of
other people have gathered around and there was no
chance for me to take more shots of the car as the rear
and the boot was very very nice.

So, yeah, I want one. Even if its just for the looks.

hols in dem road

Me cam beck and this dem grup here dig a dig road
Dey dig a dig a, and dig a dig a big hole. Cof in for a
big hors?

Mid nig, they stel do did a dig a, dig a dig a road.
Hiaz, larki me car still out dere and morrow, fetch al
wife kids 2 schulz.

Lerkee they stop dig a dig a now. Thn they a thump a thumpa de road. Makin no sleepz for a peoples lke me. Haiz.

Suzpc is all dis to fibre ur Indenet to fasterspeedwhicnoonehaseverexperiencebefore.....

EL

It finally came. thanks to Jonathan Dei. And I was feeling quite excited too.

Had to keep this as casual as possible knowing a
certain busybody at the office that can cause a lot
of damage and rumours.

Back home, when the parcel was opened, I got one
A4 White and one A4 Blue EL sheets plus a metre
of white EL string. The rest are the 12 volt PSU &
their inverters. The inverters are very important
for the EL to light up.

This is how the EL sheets look like when not lit. The
inverter has a switch which allows you to switch it
on or off and a simple flashing mode too.

And this is how it looks like when lit. Notice the white
one glows brighter than the blue. This is just a simple
test. Once I have the time, I will see what else I can do.

Now, this is how an EL looked like when lit. And so, maybe its the inverter or something else but the actual fact is, EL will never be as bright as you want it to be, when you want it to be in my case. Still, I plan to cut it into smaller strips, which in effect, reduces the area and maybe glows even brighter.

HP BIrthday

It was a very nice feeling when I rushed back. This was because for the first time, the girls rushed out and sang THE song for me. Yes, I was late because I completely forgot about it and was stuck in a evening crawl which made me call up a friend to pass the time which, lead to *ahem* a quick dinner.

But rushed home I did and all of a sudden, the roads are clear. Very, very clear, I must say. And with wife sounding very sweet and happy on the phone, this means two things. Either I am in for the chopping block or, well, its still MY day after all.

And they're enjoying the takeaway I got for them on
the way back, which was spicy macaroni and biiig prawns

Kaelynn only ate one because she realised the dangers
of eating too many prawns since she has more or less,
the same allergy I had when eating the WRONG type
or species of prawns.

Nice or not? I loved this macaroni during my younger
days because it was well, spicy and I was still used to
eating pasta. Price is a bit more but then again, it fills
you up quite a bit.

Days later, my brother SMS-ed me that he saw this
NERF at Carrefour. I told him I had no money unless
that was my PRESENT, I jokingly replied. The next
morning.......... OMG! Thanks, Bro!
(But might have to clear it with Wife as I think
she suspects I bought it myself....)

INSPIRAtion

Man, after looking at it really up close and without
the red paint and side skirts, it reminds me of a
Korean instead. Sad, but how I still wished for one

More Power!

Just ike my Bengmobile, there is only one 12volt outlet, which is reserved for inflaming some tobacco product. And as usual, out it goes. And in come my Mobile Phone charger. But knowing me, one outlet is not enough and so, I decided to do something about it as there will be some projects in store later on..

For RM19.90, this was the cheapest I could find, that is
after I bought it, Mr. DIY was selling a model similar to
it for RM5.50 or something like that.

Anyway, I decided to test it out for a few days before
mounting it permanently. Not only that, I have not
decided where to mount it on since there is not
'enough' space inside. If I mount it on the middle
console, one push of the seat to the front will dislodge
it. And the same goes for the glove compartment since
Kristine might be kicking it by accident due to her size.

Finally, I decided to stick it on the driver's side, jsut
next to the steeting column. Yaaaay!

Two hours later, under the hot sun, Booooooo!
3M double-sided stickers failed.

So, its another try with the clear acrylic super
duper mega sticky double-sided..... thing.

And it held. Days later, its still there!

Glass Doctors

And so, this morning, about 0840, Leena from Glass Doctorss called up and asks when can they come over. So, I told her that they can come over to my office's parking lot before 10AM because that's when I needed to go out for an appointment. I wanted them to come over last night but because Kaelynn was having a fever (which we needed to take her to the Doctor's) it was not possible. Therefore, I was thinking of pushing it to Wednesday instead.

But after Leena's explanation, it was better to get it done soonest possible. And so, half an hour later, Matthew came and proceeded with the repairs...

First, he cleaned the glass thoroughly so that there are
no contaminants that could affect the repair job.

Next, he applied a cleaning solution on to the crack to
try to remove as much dirt INSIDE the windscreen as
possible. Matthew explained that the windscreen has
three layers and the middle layer, which is clear plastic.
So, the big sized crack earlier was actually caused by
the expanded air bubble between the plastic layer and
the upper glass. So, once that has been treated we get
to see the actual size of the crack.

The next stage is to seal that crack as much as possible
and this is where Matthew puts in another tube, which
is a type of resin that has the same optical refractive
index as the glass and it cures/hardens under UV light.
Do not be fooled by this simple money detector. It can
still blind you.

A few minutes later, the chemical starts to harden.

After removing the clear plastic, Matthew then scrapes
off the excess. Now, the crack is repaired even though
it still has a small cavity. Matthew explained that if it is
not repaired properly by now, it could cut his finger
when he ran them through the crack repeatedly.

All done and well, you can still see it but Matthew assures
me that after a few days, the chemical will blend into the
glass. It is still shiny and all because it is new whereas the
windshield is not. As for me, I am not so bothered by this
as long as there are no more cracks on the windshield.

But looking at the warranty, because mine is still a 'small' one, I am covered in the Lilfetime waranty. I am not supposed to use any water repellent (Rain-X) or any other chemicals to the windshield which will erode the repair chemicals. Which is fine by me since I do not put Rain-X or something like that anyway. But I wonder of windshield washers could be a problem too?

So, how did I find Glass Doctors? I just Google, "Myvi glass repair Malaysia" and there they were.

Toilet for everyone

Now, watch Daddy take off his pants and then you
also do the same. No, don't look at the banana....

Cracked Screen

This is something that always happened to 'other' people except me. And then, today, I just happened to be that 'other people'. And it came out of the blue. All I did was to drive at the normal speed limit and then the crack sound happened. So, it must be the lorry in front and not the cars since I did nothing to offend them. I tried to spot for any mischievous beings with an elastic stone launcher but there were none.

And so, I had to drive slowly, with fears in my head that the crack will spread to the rest of the windshield. Sigh. And its just only a month Vee-chai and I had each other....

This is the crack on the glass. If I were not that
paranoid, I would say that someone is trying to
kill me with a stone.

Its very big, about the size of a 10sen coin.
Big enough to spread the damage.

And so, after calling Glass Breakers, they told me to
try putting a cellophane tape to the glass until they
can come over. The tape is to keep the dirt out.
Which is a simple thing to do until...

Cats and Dogs came about, that is. A few swipes and
the cellophane tape was gone....

So, I dunno. I mean, I have driven Perodua cars before and to tell you the truth, they always have problems with their windscreens.Years ago, when I drove my ex-Boss's Kenari, all it took was just a small pebble from a lorry to start a small crack. The problem with this one was that it has extending fracture lines and in a few hours, the (cracked) line spread to across the screen. Vee-chai was luckier because it was just a cavity. And suspecting the screen was not covered, I confirmed with the Glass Breakers to get it fixed asap.

On my Bengmobile, it would have just shrugged off the pebble with no problem even though the sound of the impact scares the hell out of you. Anyway, they SMS-ed me not to slam the door and to leave a gap in the window so that the air pressure in the cabin is the same. This is because once you close the door or slam it, the pressure inside pushes the glass which then complicates the problem with the windscreen.

Vee-Chai's Liquid Diet

Well, I am still over the moon on this. I mean, this is the first time that I have ever seen a car going 360-odd Km on a single RM50 (26.3 Litres) fill. OK, so there might be other cars which could do better (or worse like Bengmobile I). However, have to take into consideration that the petrol it was drinking happened to be RON97.

Which, in my most honest and humble opinion as a normal driver, RON97 does jack-shit to fuel injection cars. You won't feel much difference except for a slightly muted 'oomph' feeling to the car. I was my fault because I did not notice that the only free pump in the whole of the Petrol Station had RON97.

You know when there is a speed where an Auto car 'cruises' without you having to press on the accelerator? with RON97, it was about 80Km/H while with RON95, it was slightly above 60. That is the only difference I can tell. Ha ha ha ha. So, for me, for now, its a waste of money.

RON97 went this far

So, I refilled with RM50's worth of RON85 again

Suddenly, a few Km out of the station, the tank was
full..... hmm.... So, lets see how RON95 fares

Stupid acts of brilliance

Ever do something stupid at least once a year? OK, so you might have been doing stupid things throughout the year but there will be one so stupid, you will remember it for a long time, until that is, you either did something else that was stupid too or its time for mum-mum (eating).

I wanted to close the drawer but the spoon was in the
way. If I was not feeling so stupid this morning, I would
have slipped the spoon in and THEN close the drawer.
Instead, I watched the drawer close and crack the
spoon, stumped for a few seconds as if I have never
seen a drawer closing in my whole life...