Microman Divemaster Roberto

When I was small, I did have some Micronaut toys but ever since I grew up, they all have disappeared. Anyway, I spooted this on my last trip to Kota Kinabalu and as luck would have it, I ran out of money. Luckily, I remembered where the shop was and got Pol to buy it for me on his next trip down to KL. (OK, due to my state of sanity, my memory wasted him 20 minutes of searching and more than that when I pointed him to the wrong floor)

In reality, I wanted those blank one, called Material Force and over here in Malaysia, finding the needle is much easier. Still, I preferred to wait until I found one that I like (no, GI Joes are not a good replacement). I liked this Divemaster because of th diving equipment which reminds me of Gundam Ball. Takara (of the Transformers fame) really did well with these revamped Microman series and now, I am in Heaven! (Maybe I should ask Pol to get more......)

For RM45.90, it sure came with a lot of accessories. But I was only interested in
the figure, the hands and the diving equipment.

Funnily enough, the figure has to bend his hand backwards in order to control
the diving equipment. "Here I am, with my Diving Bell! Ding Dong!"
I pity the fishes if he has bad BO on his armpits

On closer look, its very nice, You can see the handles and also the front
instrument panel

In this shot, I am not sure if he is some Cybernetic sperm or just
some walking Pacman

How much was it again?

Customer: "I need you to be there as soon as possible"
Me: "But I will be quite late...."
Customer: "We'll be here throughout the evening, don't worry"

Contractor: "Oh, they came half an hour ago and left after that..."
Me: "@#*(& !!!)

And I walked back to the car park dejectedly in the rain after braving more than an hour in the traffic jam just to get there. But on the way, there was a handphone shop. After realising that I have no money for a new handphone or even a second-hand one, I also realised I do not even need one. So, I settled for some fancy-wancy accessories.

Me: You got Sony Ericsson T630 cystal casing or not?
Salesgirl: No. Sorry
Me: You got casing for this Nokia one?
Salesgirl: Yes, we have both blue and black.

Me: How much is the black Nokia casing?
Salesgirl: Only RM12. We sell good quality ones which lets you click the numbers better
Me: OK, lets try it on
Salesgirl takes the new casing, removes the old one and swaps into the phone
Me: That's odd. There is no light on the keypad
Salesgirl: I am not surpised. Maybe your phone's lights have burned out
I remove the casing and showed her there were lights
Salesgirl: Oh, maybe the keypad material makes it dim.
She then puts the casing back and cups her hand around the keypad and showed it to me
Salesgirl: See? There is light. Maybe just now, the autolock was on.

I am cursing silently, deep in my heart. But since she has that "Look, I have seen all and experienced all" look and was quite patient with me, I decided to take them in case she jumps up and out of the counter to rip out my heart with her bare hands.

ME: OK, how much is the crystal case
Salesgirl: RM8 only
Me: Let's have these two then.

Salesgirl: Thank you. That will be RM20.00, please. Oh, heres a bag for your old casing
Me: Nevermind, you can throw it away for me. Bye

Presents from Australia

It was more than seven years that I last saw my friend who migrated to Australia. Just days before, he sent me his photo, I was amazed at how haggard he looked. We're of the same age and he looked like he is in his early 50's! He will be here for 2 weeks and I have no idea where to bring him for him to relax.

Still it was nice to see him but due to the nature of some last minute communications, I did not get my stuff from Australia. Lucky for Kristine, my friend did buy some chocolates for her. And when she saw me carrying the whole bag at the door, she was very excited, never mind if it was past her bedtime.

Fresh and melting from Australia, the real Tim Tams, some Cadbury sweets, and realy big chocolate pack and a High5 DVD

Kristine was so happy, she could not carry them all and they kept falling on the stairs

Its amazing what they would do for chocolates........

I was so tempted to open the pack and give her some but I was afraid my wife might scold me
for spoiling her

Trouble.....III

And he said to my techinican:

"No! No! You cannot do the cables like this! Aiyah! How can I explain this to my customer?! Hah?! You never do before, ah? Aiyoh! You just plug the cables in front, pull the rest to the back and let the cable management thing take over! Hey. Where is the cable management? Heck.............. Oops. I am supposed to have them installed.........."

And then he walked away quietly.

That was fast

Kristine: Ahaha ha haha ha! [Running out from the bathroom naked]
Me: OK, its my turn to take bath! [Walking into the bathroon]
Wife: Dear, be careful in there, Kristine just disintegrated a bar of soap.........
Me: What the...........?! How can she do that in just under a minute?

Trip to Mid-Valley

So, after eight months, we finally got the chance to step into Mid-Valley. There were a few reasons why we took the Kommuter. Firstly, we're not in Bangsar anymore and secondly, at this hour, traffic must surely suck. Last of all, if I am not mistaken, the parking charges there have increased significantly. So, with great excitement, Kristine gets to sit on the train for the second time. Anyway, the trip took us more than two hours (One hour to get Kristine ready, another to drive to the station, miss the train and so on). Were there any difference in Mid-Valley since 2007? Nope. Everything just looked the same. Same shops. Same Sunday crowds, etc. I was hoping for some nice changes so that the long journey there was worth it but it was sort of an anti-climax. And not only that, by the time we arrived, the traffic was smooth. Maybe it was because of the new parking charges I suppose but I did not have the opportunity to check it out.

From Subang, there are more than six stops. By the time we arrived, we were tired out since the train was packed.

Unlike CuteBlueEyedBabe's bento, I paid RM13.80 for some Foreign guy to make it for me

Vandalism. A really good laugh when you step into Mid-Valley

Listening to Soundwave

Whenever you receive your salary, it can be a very happy experience. And sometimes, that happines can make you do stupid things like buying a 1GB miniSD card months before your actual budgeted target. And the fist thing I did was to download some transformer .wav files and also a few choice MP3s into it. And just this morning, I managed to test out Soundwave (by hiding in the toilet again).

Switching him on/off is just a simple matter of pressing and holding the PLAY/PAUSE button for a few seconds. You know you have done it right when the blue LED starts to flash on and off. Being a basic MP3 player, you cannot play the song halfway or focus on to a particular segment. With the five buttons there, you can just Play, Pause, go to the next song or to the previous song. And apart from adjusting the volume for the hadphones, thats just it. However, there is a complain that when there is a quiet moment in the MP3, you can hear some hissing.

Still, this is a Transformer MP3 player and well, for that price, you can't really complain much. I mean, there are no other tranforming MP3 players in the market yet (the ones which transform into little pieces after you drop it does not count)

Here it is, the miniSD card. If I got it sooner, I would have saved RM1

Soundwave is giving the miniSD card a chance......

When the MP3 player is on, there will be a flashing blue light

Whoop. there you go, Soundwave and the new A4Tech headphones
And he is behaving himself......
I wanted to take a shot of him holding the two headphones like a pair of gun but they did not fit into his hands

Kaelynn

Kaelynn in her first bubble-bath

An hour later, she learnt how to take off her pants

And learnt how to throw it out of the crib

And very much later, things got really scary.....

Sleeping with the enemy

The Panasonic PABX
You know, after installing the low-end Panasonic systems and the higher end versions, I am starting to like them. Although I am a strong believer of Toshiba, I guess I am starting to warm up to Panasonic. As you all know, just last week alone we had installed two Panasonic KX-TDA200 PABX with minimal help from the Panasonic Distributor. When it comes to using/installing a new product, my rule of thumb is that I try to install/use it without reading the manual. This is not to boost my Ego or show off my (non-existent) technical skills but it is a straightforward test of how friendly a product is for a normal Joe.

After removing everything from their respective boxes, I managed to slot in the cards and mount the whole system onto the wall. And with the distributor's help, I managed to terminate the cables and perform basic programming on the second system. It was really that easy. OK, so I used my experience with working on Toshiba systems. But I can tell you this: When comparing the software for programming both systems, Panasonic is more forgiving and all you need is a simple USB cable. But if you have experience with other Panasonic systems, then you know that you can also program it the normal way. Unlike the main distributor for Toshiba in Malaysia, Panasonic systems are readily available and not only that, they DO reward you if you meet their quota compared. Not only that, the business strategy of both camps are very different and you can immediately see the results:

Panasonic
1) The product comes to you via a network of distributors to dealers and resellers. Although it is economically viable, the profit gained (from the seller's point of view) is not much
2) Anyone can service your system and you do not have to stick to one installer.
3) The service is (usually) based on per call basis and is quite reasonable.
4) Experience of technicians are quite good as the Panasonic systems are easy to maintain

Toshiba
1) The main distributor sells it to you via their direct salesperson (since they have terminated all of the dealers in Malaysia). You get the product, they get the maximum profits.
2) Anyone can service your system but no warranties. The latest system (CTX, CIX series) blocks out a lot of "outsiders".
3) They charge you by the hour and the biggest complain is that they keep sending different techs and the customer has to repeat themselves day after day.
4) Experience of technicians for newer systems (CTX, CIX) are quite bad due to the training period which has been shortened considerably.

In the past year, the Panasonic phones have taken on a new design which makes it more exciting. Although it looked big,once you get used to it, its quite nice. But unfortunately, compared to the black Toshiba phones, there is a fear that these white Panasonic phones would get dirty very fast or turns yellow with age. The most outstanding feature which atrracted me was the various angles the phone can be propped up, thanks to the folding construct behind it. This feature was supposed to come with the Toshiba phones in 2002 but alas, it was mere vapourware. The second feature was that the user can program or customise their phones via the menu on the LCD. But for Toshiba, you just have to read the user guide (if you do not want to memorise the cryptic codes) and then program it from there.

You are Stupid (or Manuals are for Dummies)
In today's Internet Age, everything has been turned into a "I want it now" situation. So, I am pretty sure when you bought your Mobile phone, you would "instinctively" knew how to detach the battery, charge it and also insert your SIM card from the old phone to the new one, all without having to read the manual. Yes, the manual is a small boring book which you would be seen dead reading it and also, prople might think you're stupid or something. And if you needed to read it, then that phone would not be fun anymore and you'd keep reminding yourself "how difficult" it was on that very incident until you got so bored with it that you needed a new one again. And you'd also feel bad that your friends, who have the same phone, all kept saying how easy it was to operate from the word go.

Nice or not? Its white, it can be propped at various angles
and looks even better when wall mounted

The customer's office was designed to have a row of offices
and I just had to take this shot.

Friends again

Its quite rare that they got a long with each other so well early in the morning. I caught them when I was on the way to work. Because my Fujifilm has a very slow response, the moment it was "ready", I took this picture without much thinking. Because seconds later, they were at their normal morning routine, shouting, screaming, fighting, etc.

A4Tech Headphones

My USB cable broke and it really sucks especially when I was in the middle of programming the Panasonic PABX. So, since my customer was located nearby Section 14's Digital Mall, I decided to stop by at All IT Hypermarket. And then I saw those new headphones, the ones that looked like some mini tubes which you plug into the ears. This one was by A4Tech. The last set of headphones I had was from Sony and it was years ago. By now, the sponge has deteriorated, the wires have hardened too. Not only that, years of use has resulted in all the sweat from the ears leaking into the thing itself and I can see a lot of grime and corrosion. I think it was the early 90's Fontopia series which have nice bass. But because the sponge has gone, I have to keep pressing the earphones in order to hear those bass.

So, how does it feel with these new headphones on? Remember the time when you roll up wads of tissue paper, soak it with a bit of water and then plug them into your ears? And then, most of the sound around you disappeared and you're in a World of your own. You cannot hear most of the sound around you but you will notice that your breathing is quite "Heavy". not only that, when you eat/chew, you can hear your jaws too. However, the same goes when you move the heaphone cables about. I you say something, that is your real voice. I realised that when I recorded my own voice and layed it back from the iPaq.

And the sound quality? Well, imagine you're in a rubber room, all deafeningly quiet and then suddenly when the music starts, you feel as if you're standing in front of pair of bass speakers. Sometimes, most of the treble seems to have been absorbed within the rubber room. And of you listen to your favourite songs, you will not notice that you have shut out the World around you. So, its not a good thing when you're driving, at work or even when sleeping (really). But I really could not resist using them when I was driving yesterday. I realised that I tend to cruise more than usual and actually enjoyed the long drive. And when I was working on site, I tend to concentrate more and ignored everyone else there. Ha ha ha ha.
But there is one thing that was new to me. The moment I unplug the heaphones from my ears, all the sounds rushed in and my ears actually felt cold (due to the sweat, methingks)

Ultra Light weight! SecureFit stays in ear while Exercising!
Powerful Neodymium Magnetic Bass Driven Sound!
Constructed with durable metallic materials!
Includes three pairs (small, medium, large) of soft sleeves!
In other words, this is a sound cancelling metallic heaphones with three ear condoms

Of the three silicon sleeves, I went for the middle (Top)

And here are the set. I like the design of the stereo jack
which is straightforward

And what is even better than these new pair of headphones? I found my old ones hidden in the car's middle console box. I wasted my @#&%! RM35.00

The famous Proton remote

My Wife's car remote had its contact spring broken for years and the only solution I could come up with at that time was to solder a coil of wire as replacement. Unfortunately, this caused intermittent contact problems which means, the remote works some of the time and not all the time. You will know this is happening because you would be doing the smae thing that the otehrs were doing: slapping the remote on your hand or knocking it on the car's bonnet.

Then I happened to chance upon this component at Pasar Road and although its a bit big, it does the job well.

My spring repair job is so embarassing.
The new part is just below the circuit

Once I teased the legs into the board and soldered it,
I forgot to realise that the part is actually bigger. So
it might not fit into the remote's original casing again

And the spring was so strong that I had problems
fitting the battery into the remote. But at the end,
all's well and I am happy with the job.
Just that I am not sure how long this would last...

Breakfast

Kristine wanted a bag so that she could "Go to Work" like us. While wifey was getting one, she decided to take matter into her own hands and made her own bag (again).

Before one can go to work, one must have a hearty meal.
Here is a chocolate ABC soup

And then, one must be able to wear their own shoes by
themselves. Here is Kristine's new bag.

Urban Angel

Nice or not? Kristine just took the washing netting and then
it just happened........

Another milestone for Kaelynn

Wife: "I tried it the other day, and she could only do up to five"
Me: "Really? You sure"
Wife: "Yes"

Me: "One.. two.. three.. four.. five.. six.. sever.. eight.. nine.. ten......"

After all the excitement, Kaelynn decided to take a rest
while Kristine tempted her with some crisps

Trouble.....II

So, today is the day we get to install a Panasonic KX-TDA200. A first for me as I have never installed such a big system before. The stocks were delivered yesterday and today is D-Day where I get to install it for the first time.

Being over confident, I slotted the cards into the system as not only would it save space in my car, I will also save time at the site. It was quite easy to install and I actually did it without having to read any manuals (OK, so I was rushing and did not really have the time to go over them). The only time I did ask for help from the authorised installer was, "Are you sure I only need two screws to lock it to the wall? How come thre are six screws? Sure, ah?". Damn! It was so easy, I thought nothing else can go wrong......

The system is here....

So are its interface cards......

And its phones....

And after slotting in all the cards and mounting it and then....


"What do you mean there is a problem?"

Didn't we go over the details that we do not need to purhcase the extra stuff for this cabling? I have reminded you many times that I need your schematics so I can go over them before the actual installation. Yes, I know we saw the plans on the site but there was no lighting, OK?

Kristine's new nightgown

I forgot who gave Kristine this new gown but she took an immediate liking to it. So much so, she tried to wear it every night.

Fresh from her bath, she was so excited with her nightgown

Although it made her look a little bit more like a girl, but unfortunately...

She still climb things

The Good and Bad of Life (Or, today, I am bored)

No matter what you do in Life, if there is something good for you, something bad is just around the corner. And after you have experienced something Bad, then you’d know that something Good is around the corner. Unless you have bad Karma, then that something Good you anticipated could turn out to be something Bad which is Worse for you.

For you see, these are the Yin and Yang in Life. And however it may seem, there is no proven formula that if you do anything Good, you will be rewarded accordingly or if you have experienced something Bad, Goodness is just right behind it. There are also no definite plus and minus score chart for you as these events will come in a random fashion. However, if you reflect on the last few months of your Life, you would realize that such formula actually does exist and it goes like this:

Natural Good + Forced Good – Forced Bad + Good = Bad

e.g. Today is a Good Day (Natural Good) because you helped an old Lady across the road (Forced Good) even though does not want to and she hit you with an umbrella (Forced Bad) which landed you in the Hospital and you saw your enemy dying (Good). But, in the end, you just realized that your enemy owes you a lot of money which you cannot recover (Bad) and he has been seeing your Wife (Bad) for more than six years (Bad)

Or,

Forced Bad + Bad – Good + Natural Bad = Bad
You just saw your enemy across the road and you ran across (Forced Bad) and unfortunately, you Wife had a secret affair with him (Bad) and failed to step on the brakes (Good). As a result, your legs got hit (Bad) and she lost her Life hitting a tree (Bad) while your enemy runs away (Bad).

Other formula:
1) You accepted your friend’s final gift which was her favourite cat. A week later, your house becomes Cat Central and after a few months, you’re broke and out of work because most of your time and money went to taking care of the kittens which scratched your mortgaged house into smithereens.
[Good + Natural Bad + Forced Bad = Bad x Bad]

2) You plucked up enough courage to ask that beautiful clerk of yours for a drink and the next morning, you noticed that she has an extra appendage which makes a very interesting third mountain under the bedsheet.
[Forced Good + Good = Natural Bad]

3) You ate the free Viagra which you saw thrown out of the window and for the next few days, you were a walking tripod. Unfortunately, your sex-happy Wife was out of town and your tired Mistress (done by the same man who threw the Viagra out of the window) does not want anything to do with sticks for a week.
[Good + Forced Good x Natural Bad – Bad = Shit]

4) You got robbed and you managed to defend yourself. Then the thief sued you and after the expensive court session, you slipped on a fallen bottle. While you’re trying to balance yourself, you accidentally pushed the thief onto the busy road. Now you’re serving Life and there are no Playstations in there.
[Natural Bad + Good / Bad + Bad + Good + Bad + Bad + Forced Bad = Damn!]

5) You studied hard to get A’s, worked even harder in your career and now you’re a CEO and also a proud father. You are a shining example to the community. Unfortunately, your 2 year old daughter went around and told everyone you like to do monkeys from behind. And everyone believed her.
[Forced Good + Forced Good + Good + Damn Good = Woohoo / Awwww, no]

6) You helped your neighbour build a new library shelf and he gave you the latest Harry Potter book as a reward but your 8 year old son told you the ending before you even got to the second page.
[Forced Good + Natural Good = WTF…..!]

7) You saved months for a brand new Mobile Phone and after traveling across the City to buy it, the shop below your apartment sells it for half-price and it even comes in limited edition Pearl White.
[Forced Good + Forced Good = Oh for goodness’s sake]

8) You gave your enemy some chocolates which has camel semen in it. And he returned the favour with your Wife.
[Forced Bad + Bad = Shit]

9) After months of E-Mails, and reading and helping each other’s blogs both of you met for the first time. After a few hot dates, both of you decided to get married before the nine months are up but at the altar, your Great Great Great Granny pointed out the two of you are related.
[Forced Good + Good + Natural Good + Goody + Bad = You’ve got to be kidding!]

10) Buying a MP3 player in the shape of a Transformer toy on impulse only only to discover that you need to get a miniSD card separately. Oop. Oh, hey, this has been covered.
[Forced Good + Good x Bad = Shit]

Oh, well. You get the picture.

Kaelynn's first bubble bath

Kaelynn has never seen bubbles before!

Trouble....

What? You want to put the system INSIDE the server cabinet?

Can I have a look at your schematics? Yes. Yes. OK, good. Can I have a black & white? OH, you'll E-Mail me..... Right. But I would prefer you to have the system outside since you're going to install another server cabinet next to it..... right. Saturday