Come to me...

I bought quite a lot of Gundams recently. I started to do so ever since I started working in Queensland. I had also upgraded my hobby from just a mere Gundams collector to novice Gundams builder. With my brothers around, I have more motivation to do so. It is nice to have someone to talk about it, share some knowledge and experience it together.

Since I am working, the rate of building the Gundams had been very painstakingly slow… I am really taking my time. I had not even started with my PG Astray Red Frame. I do want to see my first PG standing but I really want to savor the moment of building it…

My Gundams look nicer now with the proper cutting, sanding, filing, coloring and panel lining. The Gundams doesn’t look plain and look quite close to the Gundams portrayed on their boxes.

Right now I am still waiting for my MG Exia Ignition Mode from Japan… When will you be coming to Malaysia? Currently, I still had not received any news about my MG Exia yet. Last time I heard from my friend who help me to buy those Gundams, she was going to post the Gundams to Malaysia. That was in August if I am not mistaken…

Are you alright there? Really sorry to bother you…

I do hope to see my MG Exia soon…

That will be my first MG too…

Sigh…

When will you be coming here? Exia...

My school is the BEST!

My secondary school was supposed to be the best school in my state. Where great leaders are born…

Guess that was history…

Now, not that I want to humiliate my own school but to progress, to move forward to a glorious goal, you have to know your weaknesses and work on it. We always shout out that we produce the best students every year…

Though best students academically only. Probably in the past…

Guess that was history…

When you do say that you have the best students, do you only said that for school time only? What ever happened after they left the school? Does anybody take note or follow up on how well the students get on with their lives after school?

I will say the school plays some role in developing the students toward that achievement. Programs and activities conducted in the school should help to instill those values…

The question is… Do the activities in the school do that? I was quite disappointed with the school orientation week for this year.

To me, the activities the school came up with were just pointless and a waste of time. I don’t see the point how those activities can help the students to be great leaders, teach them disciplines and cooperation. The activities were just childish and lean more towards ragging…

Surprisingly another school that my school always looks down did a better job for the orientation week… For whatever reason that might have, my school should learn from them…

Orientation week…

Shouldn’t the school during the week, helps the students to know the school better? Even if you want them to know the staff and their seniors, shouldn’t you have better and dignified way to do that? Shouldn’t you have games that don’t humiliate the students? The facilitators should be more considerate and treat the students with respect as well…

The teachers involved should also play their role to make sure activities are up to the best standard…

The ragging is a custom we weed out in the university life. You go to a university and you will not find it anymore. I don’t understand then why the school still practices that degrading custom then. I mean, the best school still practices barbaric custom?

That should be history…

The first month...

Quite exciting time for me… I will experience three new years soon. Fist to come was Muslim New Year, then the Gregorian New Year and soon, the Chinese New Year…

Thinking about it, nothing really special though… Just that it is interesting to see human celebrating this so call event. Why do we choose to party all out for the passing of year and ushering the New Year anyway? I still cannot get the true solid reason just yet…

Gundam Astray...

Most of Gundam designs are more or less the same to the first Gundam RX 78-2. Just add few rearmaments and modifications to the amour; you will get a new Gundam. Then few new series surfaced with fresh new Gundam looks.

I started out with SD Gundams… Then during my secondary school years, I moved on to Gundams. During my school years, it was quite hard to buy Gundams and I depend heavily on my Raya income to buy a new Gundam. The only Gundams that were affordable to me were the High Grade (HG) Gundams with scale of 1/144. Most of the scale 1/100 Gundams were just dreams for me at that time…

During my diploma time, Gundam SEED was a craze. First Grade (FG) was also introduced to the world. FG was very cheap and perfect for my brothers who were just introduced to Gundams. I was not really interested with Gundam SEED line up anyway. That was until I caught sight of Gundam Astray Red Frame…

It was love at first sight!

Gundam Astray so far had been the most unique Gundam. Gundam Astray design was said based on Gundam Mudrock which I failed to see the similarities. I was awed by the details incorporated on Gundam Astray. The arms, the legs, the head are so much different from other Gundams. Back then, I was not yet into Gundam colouring and panel line drawing, but I was drawn into the details already…

Thus, after a long break from the world of Gundam (Need the money to buy other stuff i.e. girlfriends, comics, food blab la bla) I bought myself my first 1/100 scale No Grade (NG) Gundams which were Gundam Astray Red Frame and Gundam Astray Blue Frame 2^nd L. For the first time I assembled Gundams bigger than HG.

Having the models in my own hand deepen my love for Gundam Astrays. Astray Red Frame was so awesome with his Gerbera Straight and Blue Frame looked cool with his huge buster sword. My love for both robots and swords were beautifully packaged in those two models.

Then Gundam Astray Gold Frame Amatsu was next in my Gundam Astray family. The gold plated was enough to make the already awesome frame beautiful. The black gloss amour and the unique weapon make her look awesome and intimidating. Gold Frame Amatsu right arm was taken from Blitz Gundam plus Blitz Trikeros shield. She is one heavily modified Astray.

Just last year, Astray Red Frame was made into Perfect Grade (PG) and after a week of thinking, I decided to preorder a model with a help of my good friend in Japan. I had got myself my first PG and it is also of my favorite Gundam and because it was preordered, it came with an extra set of weapons plus clear amour!

My Astray family keeps growing with addition of Gundam Astray Green Frame and Gundam Astray Gold Frame. Just recently, my cute brothers bought me Gundam Astray Mirage Frame. Thanks bros!

Green Frame was not really different from Astray original design and his only uniqueness lies in his weapon. Gold Frame was the original model before he was modified into Gold Frame Amatsu. Thus his armour is mostly white and gold as compare to Gold Frame Amatsu whose armour is in black and gold. Mirage Frame is able to transform into another mode and have his own samurai sword. His frame was also modified and made him look quite aggressive.

I had been quite lazy for these past few months and I had not even started with my PG! Yesterday, I decided to start on Gold Frame. With all the colouring and panel lining, I hope I will be able to finish him this weekend. I need purple and green too for Mirage Frame and Green Frame…

Probably colour my Red Frame, Blue Frame and Gold Frame Amatsu before I start with PG Red Frame…

I have lots of Gundams waiting to be built… Sigh… But colouring them and putting each part together are where the fun lies! I am patiently assembling each part after only carefully cutting them from the runners and sand paper or file the edge or cut stumps properly. Let not ruin the beauty of the Gundams! Even then, I do not believe in building the Gundam just for the sake of building it. It is quite sad to see bits and pieces of plastic stumps jutting out from the model…

I am also thinking of modifying my Gold Frame Amatsu into Gold Frame Amatsu Perfect Form where both of her arms are Blitz modified arms. The arms were modified to resemble Astray arms and in black and gold too. Probably need to buy another Gold Frame Amatsu and Blitz Gundam! Unless I can think of cheaper alternatives…

I am also thinking of getting two Astray Master Grade (MG) next year…

Astray Blue Frame 2^nd Revise MG is out and Bandai had announced Astray Red Frame Kai will be next Astray MG coming out in February next year. Wonder what differences will be in Red Frame Kai as it is also slightly expensive compare to MG Blue Frame…

We will get to see it soon I guess…

For now, finish my other Gundams! They had waited far too long in the box…

Happy Country...

I don’t really like politics especially here in my own country. It is always very dirty and most of the time very stupid… Probably to us, but behind the scene, that stupidity benefits lots of people. Not to all people that is.

I came across this interesting article on the internet. Well, actually few other articles related to this corruption in Sarawak. Finally, someone take notice of years of corruption in Malaysia and now they are putting Sarawak under the microscope…

The news is not a surprise to most of us, in Sarawak. What surprise me are the responses I had read, mostly from our 1Malaysia brothers from across the South East China Sea… I mean, how much more stupid can they be?

Most of them said that, we Sarawak people are to be blame for putting those corrupted Sarawak ministers in their positions… Right…

Then, is it fair to say, it is also our brothers’ fault that the BN still hold rein over Malaysia?

Our brothers over there said we need to wake up and make some changes in Sarawak… Right…

Then what about over there? Are our brothers awake and doing any changes over these years?

If they had made some changes, successful and noticeable changes, perhaps then, the Sarawak brothers probably will have some hope and motivation for change. Hey, come on, we also want better government. What make you think nothing is being done here? You see the effort over there, and then what make you think it is different here? And you expect us to do better? Come on…

With all the talk of changes, nothing significant really happened yet, so far, last time I checked, we are still under BN. So wake up everybody, we are still under the same corrupted ministers.

I don’t really want to write so much on this stuff for you can read and think for yourself (provided you are capable of thinking properly), but if the number one most corrupted guy still holds Malaysia, then don’t be surprised why the number one most corrupted guy in Sarawak is still holding his position. I mean, these people are not stupid, and of course they work with each other, scratching each other back.

COME ON, wake up! We know that already for how many long years?

Pipes with Problems...

So what do I do and what do I work with?

The nature of the company is doing maintenance and repair in the oil and gas industry.

What sort of maintenance?

Most of our projects involve playing with pipes. Not that sort of pipes you have at home but from the smallest pipes to the biggest pipes available in the oil and gas world…

Now, these industry pipes will get corroded, eroded, rusty, cracks, leaks, holes and pitting. In our world, the term hole is used when you can see through the pipe and a pit is a half develop hole. So you cannot see through them yet.

Then, because these problems with the pipes will hinder the oil and gas operations, they need to replace these pipes. To replace them, they cannot just do it straightaway.

Well, not exactly in that manner…

Lots of paperwork and stuff. Ordering replacement pipes and delivery time. Lots of complicated process involves. So, because the replacement cannot take place immediately, they need to do something about the problem before the whole platform blow up! Or worse, reduce the income!

So, that is where we come in…

“Hello Sir! I see you have seriously critically dangerously corroded pipe there!”

Well, not exactly in that manner…

Usually the client will contact us with their problem. They will also ask for quotation, or how much that the whole repair will cost them. If they are happy with our quotation, then proceed with the repair work. If not, we either renegotiate until the client is happy or just show them the door…

Well, not exactly in that manner…

Here let me show you what sort of problem the clients brought forward to us.

As you can see from the pictures, all of these once beautiful hardworking pipes had been corroded, eroded, cracked, leaked, had wall loss, pitted, holed etc. Does not look good at all and look messy, unhygienic and dangerous. The risks of getting problem from the higher up people soar high too. The risk of lowering the production and income also great…

So my company offers these two solutions:

Lokring

StrongBack

These two principals keep those problems in check until replacement can be made. They give our clients more time to do necessary stuff and also keep the production running smoothly at the same time. And the pipes will at least still look presentable…

Pipes are... Pipes!

When I started working here, I came across these four words that I must know and get use to when I entered the world of oil and gas. These four words are:

Piping

Pipe system that you cannot see with your naked eyes. This is because the pipe system is underground, underwater, in the wall etc.

Linework

Pipe system that you can see with your naked eyes. Like, like, hmmmmm… Well, any pipes system that you can see is linework.

Spool

This when the pipe is connected to valve, tap, filter etc.

Pipe

Well… it is just the hollow cylinder or the tube. That is all. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezey!

When my senior asked me the meaning of these four words, I could not answer. Then I tried to Google and check Wikipedia. The only correct answer I could find was for pipe. Other three words were and are not available. I had to put are as well because, before I post this, I recheck the terms in Wikipedia…

Still not there.

My senior, after observing that I was totally lost, generously told me the true meaning of those words. Correct only for the oil and gas world usages mind you…