Monthly Archives: July 2005

Side Activity

★ Posted on at 07:32 am ★

Heh, it was already 1am by the time I could take my eyes of Harry Potter. Heh, it was only 11pm last I checked, and that felt little more than half an hour had passed by. I was racing through the ending, wanting to know what happened. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to concentrate so long on anything, let alone anything that doesn’t require a computer.

Had this book since it was released 2 Saturdays ago. Only started reading it sporadically over the last few days. It was until I reached page 300+ that I was hooked to the book. I had no such problems with the previous book, which I finished the 2nd day I bought it. Heh, I never even followed the release date for that one, and just happened to walk pass Myer one Saturday morning and picked up the book. That was 2 years ago I think.

Not wanting to give away too much, the Half Blood Prince reads like any Harry Potter book. Less time is spent introducing readers to the magical and intricately detailed world, which probably shortened the book considerably. I think JK Rowling also decided to skim off a bit on the side stories. This book is much more focused although for some strange reason, I think more detail could have been added. There’s the usual mystery that doesn’t get revealed until the very end, although things are getting a little more predictable with each book.

It’s odd how the series started off as a child’s story book. The books got thicker and the plotlines, darker. Heh, not that I mind that very much. The books are very accessible in terms of language and teenage behaviour is something a wider audience can relate to. Now, you can even choose the adult cover version of the book. I picked the kiddie version, heh, so that it matched all the other books I’ve purchased.

Heh, was introduced to these books in 1999 by a friend. Harry Potter had only started to become a fad then. There were 3 books then, the first came out in 1997, and was only 200 pages long. I bought the first one and was so thrilled by it, I just splurged to get the 2nd and 3rd book together. The longest wait was for the 5th book, as there was a gap of 3 years before it was published. There is a trend with Harry Potter, the books get thicker, the themes get darker and the wait for each book gets longer. Not directly, but you get my point. Now I’ll have to wait another 2 years before I can read the final chapter of Harry Potter. Heh, life seems to be always about waiting, isn’t it?

Performing Technical Surgery

★ Posted on at 11:56 am ★

It’s been one of those long weeks. Sleep and get up early but spend so much time concentrating, that by early evening, I’m tired. Heh, it’s bad to the extent that I can fall asleep in front of the computer while playing games, only for my friend to wake me up to have dinner.

* * *

Just spent the last 30 minutes performing microscopic surgery on my D70. Heh, I was stupid for 10 minutes, but luckily it was only 10 minutes. :P

I did mention in the side posts that a spot of dust had got stuck on my camera’s CCD. It was an eyesore and I needed to manually stamp out those dust spots in Photoshop. So I went online and googled various CCD cleaning techniques. The easiest way was the most expensive way. Sending the camera to a service centre (I enquired) would set me back a cool AUD$99, money I could use for buying myself a decent polariser.

So I checked out those DIY methods. You could buy ready made sensor swipes at AUD$88. They came in a pack of only 12 and I decided I was against parting with my hard earned cash on things like these.

Went on to the next step and got the cloth and alcohol solution that I could use to wipe my sensor. These things I got through my friend who managed to get them much cheaper for me from Singapore (one of globalisation’s benefits).

Read a little more online and went round gathering the remaining items from various locations. Was ready to get started.

Here’s the list for the items I prepared:

materials used

  • Pec pads – for wiping the CCD with as it’s 99.999% lint free.
  • Eclipse solution – to stick the dirt onto the Pec pad.
  • Tweezers – bought from Priceline, these are meant for plucking eyebrows. Oh, I use them for taking out the Pec pads, human oils will dirty the CCD even more.
  • Chopstick – to apply the pec pad on.
  • Glad snap lock bags – meant for putting sandwiches, but they were resealable, and I needed a relatively dirt free environment to store them pec pads in.
  • Sticky tape – to hold the Pec Pad in place.
  • A heart of steel – CCD cleaning is not for the faint hearted

So I followed the online instructions, although not to the letter. Made a few attempts at wrapping the chopstick. Finally got it to look like what it was supposed to. Okay, added Eclipse solution. Did a mirror lockup on the camera to access the imaging sensor. Ran the swab through. Took a picture of the white wall beside me.

I’m like, “Oh crap, it’s even more dirty now.” Then I retry the process, I see the same specs of dirt, and they seemed to have swapped positions. Did it again and again. Until I was getting a little desperate. Why is the dirt not moving. Then a genius idea hit me.

I looked at the wall. Righhttt. The wall had spots and dirt on it. Duh. Did I mention I was stupid? So I went out to take a picture of the sky. Came back and looked at the picture. No spec of dust. Well. Nothing noticeable anyway. *phew*

That wasn’t too hard, or nerve wrecking. Just need to be quick about it. Taking some pictures now. Things seem to look like they used to. Nice. ;)

* * *

Cleaning the CCD isn’t that hard. Now, on top of that list above, let me just add common sense to it.

Playing With Plastic

★ Posted on at 05:30 pm ★

Heh, watching Gundam Seed Destiny and the unveiling of Kira Yamato’s new Strike Freedom has got me all hyped up about models again.

My first experience with a model was I think in Secondary 1. My brother had gone to Japan and got me an F91 Gundam model. I’m pretty sure it was a 1:100 scaled model. Heh, it was only like Â¥1200 (RM25 at that time) and was manufactured by Bandai. I had fun with that model, even purchasing a bottle of Tamiya black paint to get the seams and all looking realistic. I remembered sticking it together with superglue, courtesy of my uncle’s hardware shop. Even as a teenager, I think I had enough brains to figure out how it was assembled. I’ve never watched Gundam before then, having only read the novelisations of the original series, where the people in space were called New Types, and had superior intellectual skills.

After this Gundam model, I’ve longed to assemble a Patlabor Ingram. This model appealed to me because of it’s elegance. Gundam models are cool, but they feel a little excessive at times, with all their big guns and that feel of invincibility. Heh, let’s just say the Ingram felt more down to earth and practical.

Since the F91 Gundam, I’ve also had a chance to assemble models from the Star Trek universe. Smallish ships like a Maquis vessel and the USS Defiant. Assembling them is easy enough, but they look ugly without paint and the decals they came with didn’t spruce it up very much. Heh, resorted to using poster colour to make it look more realistic. But these paints don’t stick and end up as splotches after the water dries out.

Heh, no longer a kid, but still fascinated with model robots. I have always stared wide eyed at fully painted models on display at shops but this is one interest of mine that never really took off. At that age, cost was always a factor. A basic model would cost RM55-60 (in those days, seeing a 50 Ringgit note seemed like a lot of money). Bottles of paint costed RM13.50 each, which was really a lot if I only intended to use it once, and with models, there’s usually a plethora of colours you need to use to get it nice looking. The most expensive tool I’m yet to mention is the airbrush, easily costing in excess of a hundred bucks. If you really want to get this model shining, you’ll need various other accessories like sandpaper, proper epoxy, alcohol for diluting paints, etc. etc. etc. Not to mention a proper work bench to do these things, because you need a dust free environment with open air due to the toxicness of paints and glue. Most importantly, you need patience and a steady hand when applying paints and glue. You don’t want your model kit looking like a badly painted wall.

Having said all that, I’m still interested in building at least one of these models. Haha, I’m sure my mom would complain that these things only collect dust after a while (which I’m very sure they will), but it’s the actual building process and the end result that would give you a great sense of satisfaction. Furthermore you can make your model pose for photo shots!

Heh, still dreaming about it.