Making the Wall of Fame...

From Work

They were my fellow ex-comrades in a place that used to be my prayplayground... a place i used to toil tirelessly day & night to earn a humble living, making ends meet. There were tough times though, ironically those were the good times as well... despite all the rants & bitching about the sucky jobs we've had to put up with, & how we've wished for the day when we're finally able to get the hell outta here ~ to move on to greener pastures; those times will always be the defining moment in my career... all through the hardships & trying times we've come a long way and bonded well, almost family-like. I've made wonderful friends through work who've left profound imprints in my life; some have long left, some longing to go & some happily staying put. I will always reflect upon this little chapter in my life with fondness. =)
What does not kill you will make you stronger... it's an honour to be nominated on this Wall of Fame * thanks to loi for the picha, maybe you'll make the wall in due time too, hehe =p *
~ to my fellow colleagues back there, i miss y'all & all the best for the ones venturing into new pastures...

From Work

In response to my beloved ex-boss farewell, as updated by my avid shutterbug ex-colleague, CT ~ Master Yet, my ex-uber-cool boss *neh, the baldy fella with blue target mark on the forehead!*; he's one of a kind, kind of boss... just look at the farewell card intended for him ~ it speaks volume about the person he is.... wish you all the best! =D

Aero R/C Drift Package Light

The Drift Package Light Aero R/C lineup produced by Takara Tomy was developed with Yokomo, an R/C drifting specialist company. It features a compact 1/26 scale, simple assemble type drift R/C model suited for beginners. This is the only model from the lineup i could get my hands on at the moment...

From Miscellaneous

Here's the R/C drifting demonstration by one of the pros; i was sold on to the idea of getting one after watching it. The chassis features drifting tires, chamber adjusted wheels (front only) and 2 motors (one for powering the 4 wheels, and the other for the front steering mechanism)for drifting... it's just simply amazing what the R/C car is capable of doing to realistically mimick the drifting actions of real D1 cars!

Here's another review about the Drift Package Light ~ one that looks into putting together this excellent piece of work.

Even the level of details on the body set is aesthetically splendid, almost on par with any die-cast model of the same scale; the only draw back being the doors & hood don't open... It also came with extra decals for the vented hood, the front grill, front mounted intercooler plus detachable spoiler & side windows add-on for a nice finishing touch. I reckon i could do a bit of panel lining on the body to bring up the level of details a little more... =p

From Miscellaneous

From Miscellaneous

Putting it to its paces & getting it to drift properly do require quite some practice. I'm still on the perfect dougnut execution part, but unfortunately the batteries only lasted for probably an hour of R/c drifting fun... The drawback is it requires 5 pieces of AAA batteries to run; 2 for the R/C controller, 3 for the to power the car... & to get a reputable brand of AAA rechargeable batteries really don't come cheap. How does RM35 just for 2 piece sounds to you?

*now i got to go buy a battery charger... -_-

New toy on the block...

My hometrip this time coincides with another round of Gunpla group build at my Snoopy's place. It's a good session for catching up with quite a number of my ex-colleagues like the the old time., and also to collect the newest addition to my big-boys-toy-craze =p

Valen's tough looking RX-93 Nu Gundam.

From Gunpla

It must be the matte paint (undercoat) color scheme... It's got a huge frame & feels nice to hold, thanks to the added weight from the extra accessories in the form of a set of die-cast metal joints for the waist & ankles ~ making it more sturdy; can't wait to see it's final outcome after full completion soon!

From Gunpla

Vell's custom colored SD Zaku & half-completed HGUC Rick-Dom in the background...
Another SD collection i would like to have

From Gunpla

~ the SD Force Impluse Gundam *sorry about the blurry pics, i haven't brought back my 450D with me this time; and i'm still figuring out how to shoot properly with my new K770*
This is what i'm talking about

From Gunpla

~ Takara Tomy Drift Package Light: R-03 D1 Yuke's Cusco Team Orange Lancer Evolution IX 2007~! Initially wanted to get the RE Amemiya RX7, but that was quite a tough hunt as it was a limited edition release; finally got this orange EVO instead for a good deal less than the market price... soon after i found that buying the 5 AAA rechargeable batteries required to power it is going to cost almost just as much! More review coming up soon; i'm still busy playing with it right now... hehe =p

A visit to my old workshop

Managed to catch up with my ex-colleague, Simon who's now an ex-company-X staff as well for our laksa breakfast tradition at Chong Choon's this morning. Since we're in town, i decided to pop by my mechanic's shop. Seems like he's got interesting projects at hand, keeping him busy though none of them are Hondas...

From Rides

Bee's S15 getting brake servicing job; prepping for tomorrow's Sunday Club, i presume...

From Rides

& a pristine MR-S; with manual transmission *rare~!*

From Rides

+ gorgeous Brembos peeking behind those bling-bling wheel spokes

From Rides

undergoing a power plant transplant ~ the venerable 3S-GTE from the MR2 turbo. This is going to be one heck of a fun ride, i can only imagine! =D

Defensive Driving

One of the many mandatory safety trainings i had to undergo in my course of work is the defensive driving course. Well, as interesting as the name may sound, it actually does not involve any exciting adrenaline pumping advance driving techniques *yawn*; as it is geared more to raising awareness & adopting a safety-first approach in driving. The one-day course was held at a safety training facility which, is an interesting place to be, especially for a 1st-timer like yours truly. Most of the safety training required by the petroleum industry in particular, are conducted in-house here; including the sea survival training ~ pre-requisite for those required to work in off-shore platforms.

From Work

Some of the interesting highlights i witnessed ~ chopper capsize emergency drill; strapped in a heli-deck simulator that gets dunked into water & rotated 180 degree, then having to unstrap to escape from the structure & swim to safety... should be quite an experience to be had!

From Work

There's also the 8m plunge into deep water with simulated waves that swells up to 2 metres!
I shall be looking forward to get my offshore safety passport soon, someday =p

From Work

The fire emergency rescue facility *notice the charred heli-deck & surrounding structures*

From Work

The facility also overlooks a nice view of the seas, with some of the platforms barely visible in the far horizon
After half-a-day of classroom lecture & briefing, we took turns to take out the safety car for a driving assessment; well sort of...

From Work

From Work

The ride? An odd looking Persona with auto transmission with multiple cameras mounted on & inside it. 2 on the outside, for the front & rear to record the safety distance maintained of hazards in front or the rear when driving; 2 more inside to capture eye, head & hand movement of the driver to ensure one does all the necessary visual checks on the rear & side mirror & blind corner checks before making lane changes, or braking... Driving behaviour & pattern date is also logged & monitored real-time by a plugged-in laptop ~ all g-force registered during acceleration, braking & swing during cornering, distance maintained between hazards at the front & rear will be recorded and the systems will generate & summarize the driving behaviour & classify accordingly based on the data logged. I think i managed a 'Low-Risk Driver' with a little bit of extra effort... hehe =D
* that wraps up an interesting day away from office*

short update: back home again...

~ feels good to be back home again, although only for a short while over the weekend... to be around my family & to sleep on a familiar bed; i'd prefer to have an aircond in my room here as well ^_* The flying back and forth part can get a little tiring though, despite miri being only an hour away by air *thankfully*; i'm not a big fan travelling long hours on planes or by buses... Of the frequent domestic flights i've made mostly recently only, i've run into a couple of flight delays, simply because for some unknown reason, some people CHECKED-IN their luggage & but DID NOT board the flight... WTF??!! On this particular flight back, there were 9 M.I.A passengers like that! NINE!! That accounts for 25 minutes of delay to endure in the plane before takeoff... Thankfully the arrival was on time.

Project HGUC Zock

This is the 1st HGUC kit i've assembled & also one of the very few villains i have in my collection.

From Gunpla

The MSM-10 Zock is an amphibious type mobile armor which, attributes to its bubbly-stout build. Despite its relatively few pieces of snap-on parts (it's a HGUC grade afterall, how complicated can it get?), its inner frame features high level of detail including a unique mono-eye design which, rotates 360 & can move along the length of 'A' tracks on either side of the face plate.

From Gunpla

The most interesting point to note about this model is that every single piece of parts that make up this kit comes in a pair; ~ a mirror-copy counterpart for each piece; making the Zock truly bi-directional ~ no distinction between front or back~!

From Gunpla

The other being the unique pincette design ~ looks sturdy enough to do a choke-slam pose on some poor HGUC Gundams... =p

From Gunpla

Heavy proportions & bulky armor meant that the Zock is not designed to do acrobatic poses; movement articulation is limited as much as you can see *think of tortoise*

From Gunpla

I got this Zock in a bundle with a triple-mono-eye combo kit of HGUC Operation Capture Jaburo, coz they came with the much sought after water-slide decals for the Zock as well.

From Gunpla

This kit is only made up of SIX part runners, excluding the polycarp part connector piece; though the end result is fairly impressive.

From Gunpla

Looks much more sophisticated with the all decals applied

From Gunpla

Just look at the size of that thing~! It's pretty huge... considering that it's of a 1/144 scale, in comparison to the 1/100 MG RX-78-2. I can't begin to fathom the size of it in a 1/100 scale; it would surely dwarf most MG Gundams.

Random Vids: UNIMAS Alumni Gathering '08

~ taken by my buddy Louis, on a trip back to my alma mater from sometime ago back when he just bought a brand new 350400D; thanks for the nice compilation! =)

~ this was the place where i received my tertiary education *literally, though we were still using the older & less grand facility during my uni years from '01 to '05*. An Electronics & Telecommunications engineer by training, i journeyed to the Pearl of Orient to join a multinational corporation as a R&D intern for a good 1/2 year, returned for my final year, got my degree & joined a wafer foundry as a Photolithography process engineer for another good 4 years. Today i've just begun to step into the role of a business planner in the O&G industry. It's interesting to see where the journey of life takes you. It's that unpredictable element that makes life exciting yet scary at the same time. You'll have to learn to count your blessings; i feel blessed to be where i am right now... Got to learn how to embrace changes; they make you move out of your comfort zone & make that extra push to establish yourself in a different way; having to adapt to new working & social environment, learn & pick-up new skills helps keep your mind sharp. That's the only way I feel, I can move forward from this point on...

Night Cruise

From Rides

From Rides

~ cruising in the blue monster belonging to my housemate; fully clad in the Nismo 400R kit, this GTR look-a-like is actually a GT-T; the standard Skyline steering wheel would have given it away... even at the current level of 'mild' modifications is sufficient to derive some tarmac scorching fun & rear sliding action from this blue baby. As for the future, some serious big-siput *hint* T88* for big-HP upgrade is in the pipeline. * enough powah to give big brother GTR a run for its money *grin* can't wait *grin*
As for my Project Civic, i'm looking at something along the lines of engine management system... *greddy e-manage* Now 6 more days to go til pay day.... =)

My lazy chair...

From Miri

My lazy chair has finally arrived earlier this evening! Now i can put the stool aside for storage purpose... This ergonomic bum-resting equipment is probably the most expensive piece of furniture in my room at the moment (air-cond unit excluded). Better to invest on a good piece since i'll likely be spending many of my off-work hours on it... =)

RX-78-2 ~ Crystal Ver.

From Gunpla

From Gunpla

From Gunpla

From Gunpla

From Gunpla

~ these are finishing shots of my 1st special version Master Grade Gundam i've had. Managed to completed it before my month-long hotel accommodation expired. Basically, i've got nothing much to do after work, except for doing my house moving chores, leaving plenty of time to spend on my newly acquired Gunplas. This particular unit is the crystal version of the historical RX-78-2 MG, the first version which was released back in 1996. The main draw of this kit the semi-transparent plastic parts, literally all of the pieces, except for its head mast or antennae, thumb & index finger assembly, and the rubbery tiny parts-connector pieces. I don't take much liking to the final outcome of this kit; i thought the colors looked too washed up & overall it looked rather plain, the level of details revealed by the semi-tranlucent casing would be much better if it had the complete skeletal structure that came with the later & much improved RX-78-2 Version 2.0. I found the plastic parts to be a little sub-par by Bandai's standard too; coz this is the 1st ever Gunpla kit i've had snap-fit problems with. *maybe coz it's one of the known problems of early MG issues; especially the crystal version kits* So this shall be my 1st & last special version kit of such. I'd keep it for it's sentimental value though... after all it's a classic!
My photography skills (or rather lack of) does not do this kit much justice. If exploited correctly using proper lighting, this kit will show its true glory...

From Gunpla

Next up, my 1st HGUC project in progress...

My HP R.I.P.

MyW810i died-ed unexpectedly in its sleep this morning... throughout it's entire 3-years of service, i've hardly ever turned it off (thanks to the on-call 24-7-365 nature of my previous job); when i did put it to sleep for the 1st time in many moons, it simply never woke up the same. The whole LCD display content just shifted 75% upwards off the screen, i couldn't even get it to activate properly. Just had a hectic couple of days of house moving, finally checked out of hotel & moved into my new house just yesterday ~ settling-in over, i thought, & then THIS greets me the first thing this morning. WTF!!!
The one technology we've all gotten so dependant on, but always takes it for granted is the mobile phone. I don't think i can live a day without it... the sudden absence of it just makes me feel so isolated & disconnected from the world...
So the first thing right after work, i rushed downtown to get a replacement & got it without much hesitation in within half-an-hours time ~ a another SE, the K770i for about RM0.5K ++. Haven't checked much about its spec sheet, but it's got all the features & functions of my previous hp...
Since i've lost much of my contact numbers stored in my dead hp, i would appreciate it if my fellow reader friends would kindly give me a buzz or drop me a message ^_* just remember to identify yourselves.

The last weekend...

~ also marked the final weekend of my 1st month hotel accommodation. Managed to find a room to rent, literally just a stone throw away from my workplace in Lutong, not too long ago; it came pretty cheap since it's unfurnished, & for the past 2 weeks i've been spending a great deal of time & some $ hunting for basic furnishing with my newfound housemates, had dragged along Louis too when he was here for a short break the previous weekend *my bad =p *. Over the past weekend, my parents came to visit me & they were such great help with some of my house-moving chores; making ends meet by sorting out the smaller details... Thanks mom & dad! =)

From Miri

~ the room i'll be moving into, by tomorrow to be precise...
~ my ride had arrived by the weekend too, together with all my household effects stuffed in the boot still there.... although she got dirty beyond recognition when i collected her coz of the exposure to the external weather on the journey from Kuching onboard a trailer...

From Miri

~ 4 cars filling up the car porch at my new house... a Skyline ER33, 2 Civic EGs & a Kelisa; possible to squeeze in up to 5 cars but only 2 will get the coveted shaded porch... -_-

From Miri

~ a bigger view of my new dwelling place, at least for the near future... =)
For my dinner on the eve of checking out from Grand Palace, laziness got the better of me & i decided to have the house specialty sent to my room

From Miri

Tournedos Nantua ~ air-flown beef medallion topped with butterfyl prawns and served with chef's special sauce; what the description says... costs a bomb, but tastes heavenly. You get what you pay for... =D

Aero R/C Drift Package Light CM

I'm tempted to splurge on one of these cool toys when i receive my next paycheck by just checking out this vid... =p

long time no post...

It's been almost a month since i'm here. I'm still alive & kicking but my blogging juices have run dry since... This settling in process is taking a lot longer than i had expected & has been taxing as well. Adapting to a new environment, searching for my identity in this new place & seeking for acceptance in cliques i'm going to have to fit in hasn't been exactly easy, especially when it's those first few steps you take to step out of your old comfort zone. But it has to be done, for me to get to where i aspire to be.

From Miri

I'll be moving out of my temporary comfort dwelling in a week's time. I hope i'll get settled in my new place soon; though may not be as luxuriously comfortable...

From Miri

From Miri

What greets me on my way to & fro from work each day...

From Miri

The industry i'm currently affiliated with...

From Miri

From Miri

It's been a long while since my 450D has seen some action...

From Miri

It's always good when old buddies come for a visit... it gets a little too boring when you're living on your own, at times.
=)