It's been awhile now (this sort of introduction to my blog is quickly becoming a cliche now...) that I've written here.
So far work has been great - in the sense that when you work at a three man (now reduced to just two) office there's no a lot of politics (not that it was a problem before mind you) going around. I mean you just have two guys doing their work - how fucked up can things get?
This rather sudden (well I think it was rather sudden) interest into woodwork is attributed to this website - Ana White. I'm sure pretty much all of us are into building things ourselves to suit our liking and all that - and I think the thing that we lack the most is actually just direction and guidance. So to actually find a website that gives you a step by step tutorial on how to build your own stuff (in my case a playhouse) is just really amazing (Ana White Playhouse (Deck)). You'll be amazed at the vast arrays of website that seemingly shows you how to do things - but don't really stoop down to the beginner level and explain things in detail on how things actually come together. (I really like the way she google sketched all her projects).
The thing about these articles coming from a US-folk is well...they're intended for Americans mostly. The lumber there are rather cheap, and so does their power tools. So sometimes it's not that easy to follow all those instructions to the letter.
That's where both of my dads come in.
For the past few weeks I've been doing a lot of research on types of wood, joinery, finishing, etc..and having Evernote around on a tablet really helps get things in order. Here's what I have so far on my notes on things, Safiyya playhouse n slide. But don't take it too seriously though - it's supposed to be my notes, not a how-to guide.
 |
| Overall it took me around RM600 to be able to get from this stage... |
 |
| ..to this stage |
| Jenis Kayu/Type of Wood | Saiz/Size (in inches) | Harga/Price (RM) |
| Balau (ketam/planed) (sekaki/foot) | 4x4 '' | 12.50 |
| 2x6 '' | 10.00 | |
| 2x4 '' | 5.20 | |
| 1x3 '' | 1.60 | |
| 1x4 '' | 2.70 | |
| 1x2 '' | 0.90 | |
| Meranti (ketam/planed) (sekaki/foot) | 2x4 '' | 2.50 |
| 1x2 '' | 0.65 | |
| Kempas | 2x4 '' (treated) (tak ketam/not planed) | 1.80 |
| 1x2 '' (treated) | 0.45 |
I get my lumbers from Yisheng Hardware & Timber near where I live (in Kg Subang) - and to save you the additional trouble of trying to find what sort of wood is available with their prices, here's their number :03-78461590. Note: I don't really get anything out of this. I probably should though. They probably haven't heard about the internet yet.
I normally would just call them during office hours and ask them for so-so size of wood, what's the price for a feet? Or if you're really new to woodwork - just tell them what you're trying to build and they could probably suggest to you the kind of wood you should be working with (I don't really follow up on their advises though. Do your own research.)
Some other website that I consider to be useful would include Malaysia Timber Council Wood Wizard App. The tool there helps you determine the suitable choice of wood for various application.
There's actually a lot of stuff I've been meaning to write down about different aspects of the project - due to my love of documenting and also the fact that I like to be reminded from time to time. But it's getting really late now and I should really be heading back to bed (blogging is a luxury only an owl could afford now that Safiyya's around).
Safiyya is already 10 months old.
Times do fly rather quick I suppose. Or slow depending on how you look at it. She can't walk still, but it does sometimes feel like it was only yesterday that she just learned how to turn her self over.
Driving that Proton BLM everyday to work sometimes reminded me of the day when I was driving her and my wife back from the hospital back when she was just born. I was then worried about every bump on the road, about the slightest shock the car would make - worried that it would somehow have some sort of negative or detrimental effect to my newborn baby.
Fast forward several months, with a couple of accidents along the way - we now know that Safiyya Amani is one very tough baby indeed. Alhamdulillah is due of course.
It took Kak Aty to remind me that with some hard work and less complaining, I could actually get a lot of work done and have a more comfortable living space to breath in. For those of you who does not know who Kak Aty is, she is a maid who's employed with my aunt which I've borrowed a couple of weeks back. Having her around has basically made me feel more organized I suppose. Guess it was really about how to manage your time and get the stuff that needs doing done.
She's not with us anymore if any of you are wondering, but the impression that she made - lasted. So now I'm changing my routine. I've decided that from now onwards I could probably leave for work a bit later than usual. I've decided that I'm gonna spend more time with my Safiyya in the morning, because I'll probably end up reaching home late at night no matter what. So thats that.
Amazingly with that decided, I could now give her a morning bath, clean up the room, make some breakfast, iron some clothes, and at times - rock her to sleep. Not to shabby I suppose.
Of course, the getting back late from work part would need to be addressed as well - as it's not conducive for my marriage at all. But at the moment that's how things are probably going to be. I'm so used to sleeping early nowadays that I find it rather hard to do any work at all during the night - hence why I usually decide not to work at home and rather finish them at the office before returning. That part would have to change sometime later I suppose.
Owh - and we're probably gonna be able to move into our new house as early (well I guess I shouldn't call it early...its been months now) as next month! Yippee..(me in excitedness mode). And I think when Safiyya has learned to walk, I'll probably take her on a stroll as well every morning - just to let her experience the nature more (and she likes cats btw). :)
I probably should stop writing right about now. Probably wouldn't wanna attract that much attention after what has happened at my last place.
But that wouldn't be me now would it.
A month or so have passed since I joined Aircom International. They're good a company to work for I guess. Not very well organize in certain departments - but they're getting there I suppose (more like I hope so). Being in the company for just one month doesn't really give me the rights to actually bitch about anything, but hey - that's how I see it at the moment.
From what I can garner so far - it's actually a pretty neat place to be at. The product is well..just another product, but makes this place more interesting than the last would be the people working in it. I find them to have so much experience and knowledge that I gather it could take me some years to learn off of these guys. Yeah...guys. Some are actually pretty "experienced" if you get what I mean. Kinda think about it - I'm actually the youngest of the bunch. The average of my team would be somewhere like 37 -40...and I'm 26. Haha.
So yeah, I am glad and thankful that Allah have given me this path to take - to be able to join such a company whereby there is so much I could learn and so many seniors that could (hopefully) teach and guide me.
The work hours haven't been good though. On a typical day you'd see me getting up very early in the morning (much earlier than usual I suppose) to catch the 730am - 8am KTM train at Batu Tiga. From there it would take the train around 30-45 minutes to get to KL Sentral. Later a swift walk from the train to Maxis office would take me like 15 minutes. I usually would arrive at my cube sometime near 9am.
And I usually reach home around 8-9pm.
It's a rather sad state to be in where when you get home and you could only see and play with your baby for just a short while until she goes to sleep and you yourself are having some dinner downstairs alone.
My schedules really need to change.
Anywho, at this point in time - I just got back from the UK office to "supposedly" attend some sort of product training. Luckily, my wife did manage to slip herself and our baby along with me and we were there for a good 3 weeks. Yeah...these opportunity don't come often, so we might as well make good use of it.
I have tons of UK pics posted in facebook - which I am too lazy too post over here in the blog. Owh well. You readers would just have to take my word for it. Hoho.
It was a great trip overall. It had all the ingredients - laughter, sorrow, drama, suspense, you name it - it's there. Safiyya had much fun too. She was busy annoying other train passangers and looking into other people's bag. Aww...isn't that cute~ :)
The best part I like about working there would be the fact that the office was just a walking distance away, and sometimes at lunch - I could have them with my wife while sitting somewhere at a nearby park under the sunny - cool sky (with Safiyya crawling around).
In any case - I'm not sure when will be the next time I'll be writing back here. It guess it was quite some time from my last post. Anyways hopefully I won't be leaving this blog too long to be collecting dusts.
:)
Work
It's been good. Sometimes great. Sometimes well..not-so great. After spending almost 3 years in Comptel - I will finally be leaving them. Hopefully the experience will be as good if not better. Can't say that I'm not worried about the prospect of leaving my comfort zone - I am. I really am. But one can't, or must not, dwell too much in the comfort zone. Especially when one is as young I am. There are still much to see out there. Still many perspective and viewpoints to see from. To limit myself to just one will mean that I am actually holding myself back to view the world and its challenges.
It's the money. It's the knowledge. It's the experience. It's a little bit here and there. Hijrah tu penting. Ibarat air, kalau duduk setempat je lame2, busukla air tu. Macam lopak. Jadi sekali sekala kenalah mengalir, ubah persepsi dan cabar diri sendiri. Barulah minda tak kontang, akal berkembang.
Buntalbeads
The website recently went through some major layout revamp. It looks better now I suppose. Looks sleeker and more professional. Not that it matter much (it does to me though - I always love a neat and clean design) since we're not running the business that seriously. I guess in the end - we never really thought of the business as our actual source of income - it's just something that we do to learn, have fun, and get some cash along the way.
Personally, for me at least, it feels rewarding to actually have someone else buying stuff from you. More so when you are selling something that you deeply believe in. Bean bags. I love bean bags. That's why I enjoy selling them I suppose. Even more so when they (the bean bags) are quite hard to find (cheap) in Malaysia.
There are exceptions of course - some lowyat forumers have been selling them at quite a reasonable price before we started the biz. So kudos to them for bringing a great product to the masses (or other forumers). Not sure about the quality though. That's why we started ours. :)
I am at times tempted to post a [WTS] topic in there (Lowyat forum) as well - you know to get more sales in. But the thing is, if there were too many demand to be met with so little resources to supply it - chances are we will no longer have fun and get the same satisfaction as we previous did. It will tire and bore us and the business would probably die as a result. Hypothetically speaking of course. Thus (for now at least) we'll just depend on good 'ol facebook and friend's recommendation as the mean to expand our reach.
It hasn't been easy down in the production line. With Safiyya constantly demanding attention from her mom - actual work can only be done late at night when Safiyya is asleep. Hence again why we prefer not to have a lot of customers (not a good business model there - i know).
Life
I'll be missing Comptel I can tell you that. It gave me a lot - and hopefully I've done my dues while I was there. Apart from that - the bank loan process seems to be going rather smoothly (okla sikit..), so hopefully I'd be able to move in to our new house soon. Yippee~
On to the next adventure!
p/s: Happy CNY '11 to those celebrating :)
It's 2011. It's the year touted to be the year of the tablet and would also bring forward a huge collection of movies based on comic books.
Anyway here's my list of must-watch movies for this year (as a reminder for me to watch them when they actually come out. You tend to forget about these things as you go back to your usual daily routine).
1. Wanted 2 (no available poster).
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (not that I've seen Part 1 yet btw.)
3. Captain America.
4. Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
5. Super 8.
6. Limitless.
7. X-Men: First Class.
8. The Hangover: Part 2
11. The Adjustment Bureau. Based on a short story from Philip K. Dick. You just gotta love his stories. :)
12. Battle: Los Angeles.
13. I Am Number Four
Happy 2011! :)
I don't particularly have anything to blog about actually - just putting down a few pics taken earlier tonight.
Kids... they can sure make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside don't they.
Alhamdulillah.
Ketap! Ketap! Grin~~~
Again with the wish lists. Haha.
I've been reading a couple of (well...to be honest just one recently..lol) ebooks as of late. But it got me thinking about what are the better ways one could have to read these ebooks. I mean, who in their right mind would wanna carry around them bulky laptops (or even a netbook) just to read a book?
Then comes the tablet - or in my case - iPad. With a price tag of over 1k++ for it's cheapest model (suitable for cheap people like myself..ehem), I guess it's quite a hefty sum to pay. Though somehow I personally do think that in time it will prove to be a worthwhile investment due to its usefulness and practicality (ehem..since I am the kind of person who read a lot. No really - I do. )
Ahh..then I could read all those downloaded mangas, that Watchmen novel, that Marvel Civil War series - owh the joy! :)
For now though - I've been taking a break (or a long break/breaks rather) from my Oracle exam preparation and peeking/glancing/devouring/fantasizing on DSLR-related books by David duChemin. I like the fact that the book (Vision and Voice) not only stops to teach you how to properly fix or refine your pictures - it also includes his insight/philosophy on the art of picture taking. I kinda get that artsy feeling after downing a few chapters..lol.
Unfortunately for me - the hardcopy of the book is not available at the bookstores that I've gone to these past few days. Fortunately, there's Amazon (and my wife's credit card).
When selecting which ebooks to download - I find the reviews people put in Amazon to be of much help. I mean - can you imagine the amount of free (pirated) ebooks available out there? A LOT! And knowing me - sometimes I just feel like downloading all of the ebooks available out there (the one that interests me of course). There's just so much stuff to learn - but so little time. So due that latter factor mentioned - time - I guess the next best thing (or rather the smarter thing) is to actually rely on others before me who've actually gone through and digested them.
...
Running out stuff to rant - returning to my faithful (with those occasional blue screen) laptop to read some more ebooks.
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