We did some DIY work on our new home today. Today is basically a ‘test’ session as we wanted to see how long and difficult it would be to paint the walls. We won’t be painting the whole house. Just some walls to make it a ‘feature’ wall. We plan to also paint the gate. The existing colour and paint sucks big time. It’s also beginning to rust already…

So today, we tried out on one of the bedrooms. Just needed to paint one wall. I did the top and mainly the middle portion (using roller) while Mrs Tai did the sides and lower portion. This way, she don’t have to stand on the chair (we have yet to get ourselves a ladder).

One wall and one small section of the gate took us about 3 hours. During that time, we had visitors — my ex-colleagues from Sanofi-Aventis. We had met OTA, Geraldine (OTA’s daughter) and Michelle at a restaurant during breakfast. Told them of our plan for the day and invited them to drop by. So, later that morning, OTA and Michelle dropped by… Told them to also visit Setia Eco Park — You just cannot NOT visit this place when you’re in Setia Alam.

Overall, we’re happy with the colour. We can do better with our painting skills though, especially the gate. The paint is a different type (used mainly for metal). So now, the walls have got drips of paint all over… *sigh*

Nope… No photos. The colours and the design of the house is a ’secret’ for now…

Today was spent basically doing shopping for the new home.

First was to the tiles showroom to pick the skirting for the house. We won’t be using the same tiles used on the floor. We picked a similar colour but brighter tone. Hopefully it will turn out alright.

We also purchased…

Bought this kitchen sink in Klang

This kitchen sink is currently in my car boot. Basically no place in my parent’s house to store it. Plus, since renovation work is going to start soon and the sink isn’t really that heavy, we’ve decided to just leave it in the car. We can’t leave it in the new place because the grilles are not up yet. We worry someone might break in and steal the things inside — we’ve heard of cases where the house under renovation was broken into at night and rolls of cables were stolen.

Evening was spent finalising the lights for the house. Yes, we’ve finally chosen all the lights. We got them from Perfect Lighting House at Damansara Uptown. The shop faces the LDP and they have this gigantic light bulb (plastic one) in front of their shop. It’s very near BHP. they have quite nice designs. Mainly practical ones. Just as important, they are also cheap. I’ve been to Top Ten in Puchong and a few other shops, but in the end, it was this one. They had better design and price-wise, very similar. It seems this shop also sells fans and water heaters at a very low price — so low that its cash and carry. No credit cards for purchase of fans and water heaters (they are selling at almost cost price), so cannot afford the credit card surcharge. According to the lady boss, they sell the fan and water heater only after a lot of their customers requested. Their main business is still lights. The water heaters and fans is just value-added service for their customers.

Got back my notebook today. I don’t hear any more static noise when I start the notebook. No static noise as well when I tested it. Seems good this time around. Engineer who delivered the notebook back to me told me they had replaced the motherboard.

Will be using it this weekend. See how it goes…

This website needs no introduction. Today, Malaysia Today (MT) got itself into the spotlight again…

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Malaysia have been ordered by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block access to that website. Is this a form of censorship? What happened to the guarantee that internet access in Malaysia will not be censored? I can understand if the blocked website is a phishing site. Is MCMC trying to tell us that Malaysia Today is worse than say sites that promotes and shares pornography? I had high impression of MCMC as they had helped me with a few issues… But this decision suddenly made me think twice…

It is also a decision that made MCMC look really stupid. There are still ways to access the site. Basically, you can:
#1. Access the mirror sites. There are a few:
* http://mt.HarapanMalaysia.com (not case sensitive - it’s just for easy remembering)
* http://m2.m2day.org/

#2. Just use a different DNS server. The job of the DNS server is to actually map the domain name to the IP address (which is the ‘real’ address on the internet). Local ISP would probably have made sure their DNS server does not send you to the server where MT is hosted. You can try OpenDNS.

#3. Use a proxy server. You can Google for more info about this.

Personally, I find #2 to be the better option. The local DNS servers kinda sucks. I had some issue a few months back with TMnut — I could not access a legitimate website on their network but was able to do so using a proxy or another service provider. And it took them like FOUR months to fix it!

Ya, I know… Dark Knight is almost at the end of its cinema run and I’m only watching it now. Well, we had planned to watch it earlier and every time I tried to book the tickets, it was always fully booked. This time around, once my bro said he will make himself free, I walked over to Pavilion KL after office hours and booked the tickets. Pavilion KL is just two minutes walk from my new work place.

I have to say I’m very impressed with this movie. It is how a Batman movie should be… Dark. But at times, I find Dark Knight to be quite dark and depressing. The way the people reacted in the movie is quite true… In times of trouble, most of us would do anything to survive. Heath Ledger did a good job portraying Joker. It’s a pity passed away before the movie was even released.

But Dark Knight is definitely a must watch!

Dell service personnel came to my office to deliver my notebook back to me. They had taken it back to their service centerlast week for further testing.

When the guy came, he said that they had fixed the problem. They had replaced the speakers (again) and had left machine turned on for a few days. I get skeptical when I hear remarks like that and jokingly asked him if they had someone sit next to the notebook to listen for any static sounds… After all, if no one is around to listen to it, how would they know if the sound is no longer there? Also, I asked if they had the chance to do some actual testing (to mimic real life situation) rather than just leave it on and let the screen saver kick in. He said all will be well…

So I turned on the notebook while he completed the service completion form. Then his face turned paled… Even before I reached the Windows login screen, the static sound could be heard. He looked at me and told me he won’t really bother with the form and will take it back to the lab again…

This is the first time I have actually come across a situation where Dell had to take my notebook away from me for more than a week. Needless to say, after the guy left, I wrote to Dell just to tell them I’m a bit disappointed… If it had happened to a company/ business, Dell’s reputation would have dropped a few notches. You can’t tell a user that they won’t have notebook for a few days, can you?

FYI, my notebook is the business model - Latitude D610.

Like most other business, the developer of my new place is no different. Excellent and friendly before sales… Polite and all-too-helpful during sales… And sh1tty after sales.

Submitted my second defect list two weeks back. In that list were some items that I was not too happy with. Today, we met up with the supervisor after we had received the notice from the developer that the defects in my second list has been completed.

So imagine my disappointment when I saw… Nothing was done. Supervisor could not explain to me how someone from their team could have signed off the items as completed when there was nothing done! In fact, we saw some ‘new’ defects. There were watermarks on the wall in the wet kitchen! We have not even connected water to the house yet and there’s already signs of leaks?!?

I think the supervisor will be having ear-ache for the whole week! But in case you were wondering… I didn’t raise my voice and did any profanity came out of my mouth. I just told him I would like an explanation of how someone could have said that rectification was was completed.

Anyway, I met my backdoor neighbour. Nice guy… I was checking his house when I noticed similar water marks. Then it dawned on me… The marks on my wall is most likely due to water leaks from his side that had seeped over to my side. He’s got water connected already and the leaks on his side seemed very bad! I think the leaks is from the internal joints… See how much I have learnt about construction after buying this house?!

Oh ya… Finally confirmed the main contractor who will be doing the grilles, wet kitchen, etc… God that done yesterday… *sigh* Money, money, money…

For the past one month or so, my Dell notebook has been giving out weird static sounds, even after the speakers have been muted! Scary, huh? <— After all, its the seventh month.

About a two weeks back, the engineer came to change the speakers… But after about two days, the static sound came back again. So after discussion with their tech support, it’s been agreed that they will take my notebook back to the lab for further tests…

I know the notebook is at its end of warranty. I think warranty expires in another month or so… But this notebook itself is a reconditioned unit (bought it from Dell’s refurbished unit section).

I just hope they manage to find the problem and fix everything… Overall, I’m still very happy with my Dell.

The ID guy from Rowenta (Haris) came to my new place to take a look at the kitchen and made some measurements. He says the design will be out in a week…

Got two contractors to drop by and quote me for grilles and some electrical and plumbing works.

Then Mrs Tai and I were off to Ikea. We had wanted to buy some cupboards and other little things for the new place. We had almost reached the checkout counter when we asked ourselves… Do we need to grab these things now? The bookshelf packaging looks so big we probably can’t fit it into my car. Even if we could, there’s practically no room in my parent’s place to store them. So we left the trolley and walked away… To dinner.

Wanted to watch The Dark Knight but all the tickets were sold out. *sigh*

Shoulders are really aching from the 30L of paint… Yes, I’m a lazy bum who hardly exercise except when I Wii…

So not going to write much today… Just going to be nice to Mrs Tai and hope she will punch me tonight.