MLai - Reflecting my Life

[Back blogging] So, was the designated driver today. Luckily everything still fit into my boot. So preparation was in Randwick, with the ceremony in Beverly Hills. Following that was shots at the Botanical Gardens and then the reception at Sky Pheonix. Very windy day, but it settled down and looks great in the photos. I must say, I’m missing the weddings where theres food in the middle of the day - keeps me going. Anyway here are a few pics:

The preparation for the girls:

These guys just decided to do this:

Such an adorable dog:

Mmmm, not really wedding related, but I really like it:

The bouquet:

An intimate moment..:

It was a great wedding - long though - especially with assignment work to do the next day. I’ll comment on my work in the next entry.

Quick note: Cat Empires new album came out today! I could possibly say that its even better than the previous albums.

Written by Milton Lai

Wedding on sunday was a lovely wedding, although, being - or should i say, becoming - sick didnt help anything. It was considerably long, with tea ceremonies at the brides and then the grooms. Some formals were taken at one of the bridesmaids place as well as at Lake Parramatta Reserve. Ceremony and reception were at Oatlands House. Good food as well… but of course… being sick was horrible. Here are a few pics:

Prior to the tea ceremony, there are some traditional formalities between the two families:

The dress (bride made it herself I believe):

Whilst the girls were changing into western clothes:

The bride:

How attractive…

How VERY attractive… =P

So weather was great, everyone there was great. Wish I hadn’t gotten sick though.

So being sick meant that I was forced to go home on Monday. So I only had a half day. It allowed me to swing by Tint-a-Car to get my windows tinted… which I ended getting done on Tuesday. So with my car, on friday evening, I stripped my car… the door trims, the seats, all my audio gear. On saturday, picked up my faceplate… which was $250, and also picked up the large pack of Dynamat, a couple switches and some cable. So… first, installed the window… not too bad at all.. just cleaning out all the glass took a while. Then stuck on the dynamat… now this took ages… but both front doors are done… and sounding so good… The reorganised my audio… which now has a switch for each amp. Having put in the dynamat, there is a lot more bass coming through and so with some of the music I listen to, I now just switch off the sub amp since its overpowered.

Tinting… got the Midnight Express put in (at 35% - which is the legal limit). Looks really nice… I can however, see some bubbles, but was told that they will go away in the next 3 weeks and if not, to take it back. It comes with 10 year warantee which is always good to know is there.

Currently, at work, lunch break nearly over… I’ve got a really stupid problem which I’m stuck on, and I hope its a simple matter of reopenning my project to get it to work, since I have a for loop which loops to the upper bound of an array… which seems to keep growing! but im not updating the array in any way…

Assignment due next wednesday… so a busy week ahead of me!

and… just cz he is soo cute:

Written by Milton Lai

So, been grabbing a ride to work the past couple days, and until the weekend I suppose, which has been tops. Means I get to sleep in a whole hour!

I planned out the rest of the week to program certain functionalities, and so far, I’ve finished what was planned for tomorrow! I spent some time today, thinking about my whole ‘missing headunit’ dilemma. I called Fairfield Car Radio - they are an Alpine Dealership in NSW. Asked if they sold my faceplate and they got back to me with $245! Now thats a lot for just a faceplate, but I do understand why that’s the case.

I originally called because I got myself a second hand window for $75 at the wreckers. Now to installed it myself, I’d have to take apart the doors. Having done this already for my speakers, and knowing that the clips holding the panels together tend to… break, I thought, why not put in some Dynamat at the same time. So was looking around, and decided to call Fairfield car radio to see if they had any. They have an alternate brand that will do my 2 front doors, and a larger pack - not sure which brand - that will do front doors and boot. This would cost me 100 and 300 respectively.

I’ll finish this when i get home…

Well its kinda the next day, since i was busy… doing nothing last night when i got home. So since then, I’ve decided to get the replacement faceplate and the dynamat. Means a big job this saturday.

Dont remember what I wouldve been ranting about, but I’ll keep this short and get onto some real work!

Written by Milton Lai

Not that it was that eventful during the day. It was more when I turned up to my car, opened the back door, threw my bag in, closed the door, open the driver side door, look in and find a huge mess in the passenger seat. On closer inspection, passenger window was smashed, everything in the glove compartment was emptied all over the seat and floor. Called the police assistance line to report the incidence. Dropped by Glebe police station, to get my car fingerprinted but was told no one was about to do it, and so a job was put down to get it done tomorrow. I was told that there have been a string of smashed today on the road I parked on. I have noticed of late that there have been more and more broken windows on the ground, but I thought nothing of it since my car is a bit of a mess most of the time.

Having not touched anything since the police will be here tomorrow to fingerprint it, I had a look to see what was taken and…. mmm… it seems ONLY the faceplate for my head unit…. If you look back at my previous blogs you should find a few pictures of it… So just the faceplate, no evidence of trying to get my head unit or anything else for that matter. If it was just for money, I had money in the driver side compartment but it wasnt touched at all. It is just so annoying that they decided to take the faceplate of all things… They didnt even take the faceplate to the DVD player!

Lessons learnt: to take the faceplate with me everywhere… I used to, but lately decided that ‘like itd ever get stolen!!’; never park there ever again…. well what Vince is saying, which is a valid presumption.. that they could come back for the head unit later… which i hope not.. especially since I will be getting a new one - cant get the face plate anymore.. i dont think.

So now… putting a few purchases back to get things fixed.. the window, possibly an alarm system, and a new headunit. That may lead to a redesign of my boot as well.. Definately not a good evening I’m having.

I guess this may mean also that I should ride my bike more often and parking in safer places! Anyway… back to looking for a new head unit… you win some, you lose some..

Written by Milton Lai

So APEC has been on for the past few days, well its more like its affected sydney-siders for the past few days. Of course, that didnt affect today though, since we were out at Kellyville. Started with getting ready shots at the bride and grooms place - both of whom were there. It was a lot more relaxed since the parents werent around. It then moved onto a few location shots in the area, before heading to Cropley House for the ceremony and reception. Good food there, nice people, easy relaxing day. Here are a few pics:

Shot of the rings:

Shot I kind of like:

Black and white photo through the same medium:

As they entered Cropley House:

The Marriage Celebrants notes:

The bride and groom and car:

So this is the start of a long stream of weddings to come. Hopefully, my images and influences will change during this time and help me develop some outstanding images!

Written by Milton Lai

OK… SO.. a whole month as gone by… without a single word from me. As lame as this excuse might be, I just haven’t had to time, and I have been trying to find the time. So the last time I blogged, was before Nick’s 21st dinner with the family. It was a top dinner - peking duck pancakes… mmmm… The week following lead to his 21st party, which was an unforgettable event. Having been to one his of sisters 21st, it followed suit, and being able to catch up with everyone was really good.

On the 11th I had a wedding, which I’ll finally put up. On the same day, I had Tony’s 21st, which, as every year for the past.. 6 years… has been as his place with his mums great food. Having finished the wedding, I was also the photographer for his party.

On the 26th, I went mountain biking with nick. It was kind of a wet one, so headed to the Manly Dam track, since it was a lot closer. It did have signs throughout the track saying it was closed, but it had dried up slightly, and the puddles added a degree of fun. Its a quick ride - only taking an hour. I also did manage to stack it again… this time, it was me heading down the same bit of track (we did a small loop), and, having locked my shocks off previously, forgot to unlock them, hit the second rock down, no absorption, and flew sideways, over the handlebars. Only a small graze on the leg this time.

Finally - few pictures of my baby:

Last weekend, had a friends birthday dinner, before Justin’s and Mary’s 21st party. Again, great to meet everyone again. Prior to that night, I had a shift at telstra stadium for the.. souths v roosters. Didnt get to watch any of it, instead was handing out the Rabbitohs News. Fun 3 hours… On the sunday, headed out the Parramatta stadium to watch the Bronco’s get thrashed 68-22 by the Eels…

So with work… my current project, 1st stage for release is end of september.. which is drawing closer. I hit a milestone just this week and I am confident in being able to deliver the project on time. There is still so much testing needed to be done. In short, RealBasic doesn’t handle undo stacks that well… if at all. I have a whole structure of objects which is displayed on a ‘bench’. Every drag and drop is recorded and is popped off my stack. Seems simple enough, and the idea of it is simple, but implementing it frightened me a bit. But it did end up not being so bad. My nested arrays of objects are driving me mad� but just as long as I understand whats going on… its all fine… well thats what the other guys are saying… So it has been busy.

Uni, well the project which is due on the 26th of this month, isnt so bad. Its building a car auction system in VB.NET. So talking to a database and having to implement business rules. My only challenge is the different/similar syntax it has with realbasic, and only wishing that I could use the framework I currently work with at work. The application itself would be very similar to which I currently do at work, but with a lot less functionality. I’ve been spending my weekends, well what I have of them, at work doing my assignment as well as project work. So it has been quite busy, and not too much spare time. The pressure is building with work and uni, and I am starting to stress… a lot, but i get through the day, putting in more hours just to make sure i get to a satisfactory point, where I can say I’ve done enough.

Tech wise… cant say i’ve bought too many things.. or upgraded that much… or have I…. I’ve now got 4gb of ram in my MBP. Its running like a charm. Got myself the Nokia 6120 Classic through 3. Its a great phone, simple to use, simple interface, not too flashy, and has the latest Symbian OS on it. Also got myself a Holux GPSlim 240 bluetooth GPS receiver from eBay - which is currently working with TomTom on my mobile. Its really handy when you get stuck somewhere and need directions. Alternatively, you could go for the Nokia 6110 Navigator, but it is way too expensive. I just wanted a phone, which, when I do end up signing up to X-Series, I’ll be able to hook it up to my lappy and surf the web.

My aim… and whether or not I can do this is another story. I would feel as though I’m bludging if I do this, but I would like to be able to blog a lot more often, so hopefully, I boring read everyday, but an update nonetheless, on tech news and whats happened during the day. I also need this for uni, since I will have to write a report in the coming months about what I have been doing at work, and what I have learnt, challenges and all those sorts of things. So I’ll hopefully attempt to do this at the end of every working day.. or close to.

Written by Milton Lai