cut lips

was supposed to be at cheryl's birthday party, but lucas had a last minute mishap at home.

we were watching tv when he appeared with blood on his lips. he somehow fell and had 2 cuts on his upper lip. it took around 45 minutes before the bleeding stopped.

had to used a few hankies wrapped with ice and apply some pressure. the cut did not look that bad. at least i thought so.

i cut a plaster so that it is able to stick over the cuts.

comic life

just saw this cute application on my mac... after i upgraded to leopard 10.5.1.

i quickly browser thru available pics that can be made into a comic strip and came up with this...

enjoy. ;)

my first PAM

i've long admired panerais for their large and simple clock face. these are big watches. i'm also a fan of IWC chronographs, with a liking for the portuguese automatic.

i finally settled for a historic series, the PAM 177H. it's complete gibberish to the uninitiated. i too, feel that panerai is not easy for the casual buyer to get into.

the subtle differences in model, dial colour, lug sizes, movements, sapphire case backs, manual/auto wind, steel, pvd, titanium, etc... are just too much. then comes the straps, deployant buckles, tang buckles, and the multitude of OEM strap makers. and the straps don't come cheap. the alligator strap that came with mine is around SGD420. and then the authorized distributor has no stock of any pams on hand.

the above is a poor pic taken of the pam and the speedmaster. i knew that such shots are difficult to take, but i never knew it was so difficult. will take more in daylight when i have the chance.

the pam 177h is a 44mm diameter titanium case, with sapphire case back to display the movement. it is a sandwich dial, meaning that it has a layer of luminous material at the bottom, followed by another layer on top, that is already cutout with the numerals. it has a second hand and is manual wind... meaning i have to wind it everyday or when i want to wear it (may have to set the time). the winding is suprisingly smooth and has a spring back feel. much easier to wind than the speedmaster. perhaps due to the larger diameter of the winder. you can actually see it moving two other gears via the case back. cute... there's actually a FAQ on panerais on the web. paneristi is another site that has lots of information on panerai.

for now, this is the start of my path to get more straps. 2 are already on the way. ;)

some pics here.

itchy itchy itch...

and that was how the rockwool left me feeling...

it took around 35mins to "staple" each of the panel together. and it was a mess thereafter. had to vacuum up all the leftovers.

best recommended to be done in an airy place as the rockwool will cause some particles to be released into the air when compressed.

luckily for me, it was not too difficult squeezing the 2' x 4' rockwool panels into a slightly smaller frame.

the results when listening to just 2 panels are simply stunning... it really is the icing on the cake. i never knew bass had so much depth and layer. it is really worth the itch.

will see if i can mount these panels on the ceiling... was supposed to have one directly above the speakers and one directly above the sofa.

more pics here.

olivia ong's cds

got all her 3 cds. have not listened to the first 2, but if the voice and delivery of "Fall in Love with Olivia" is maintained, i have no doubt that it will be great cds as well. got to support local music right? i also bought a silver marker and brought these to esplanade...

we were at esplanade at 9pm to catch olivia perform at the concourse as part of the mosaic festival. this is a free indoor performance, and what a crowd it attracted.. there goes my hopes of getting an autograph on the cds.

she looked different in real person, and was definitely shorter in real life.

the sound setup was quite bad, could not really hear her well. a little soft. somehow it just sounded like a different olivia... like she had a sore throat.

we left at around the 3rd song. lucas is being figidty and can not stay still on top of my shoulders.

nonetheless, thanks to angie for the tip... hmm... angie's surname is also ong... perhaps they are related? maybe i still can get my autograph.

Bass Traps in the making

“Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor” - quote from William Cowper. I think this best describes my audio adventures... before my Moskido is even half complete, I embarked on doing up 5 bass traps that I hope would help better my room acoustics. Someone posted this youtube video on echoloft... I also checked out basstraps.net and Ready Acoustics. Ready Acoustics gave me inspiration to make my bass traps.

Basically, the bass traps are 3/4" mdf, exterior dimensions are 4" x 24" x 48". I wanted to do a 6" version, but was concerned about the lack of space to position my speakers... ;)

The traps are held together by two 1 and 3/4" self tapping screws at each end. I had to pilot all the places for the screws and also do a slight counter sinking in order for them to be flush mounted.

But since this is last minute, cos my wife's flight was delayed by a day and I had already taken leave from office, I bought the Rockwool for this project and realized that I had to arrange transport for it. Hope it will arrive in due time.

I was at Spotlight earlier on looking for suitable fabric for the traps. This seem to be the more expensive part of the project... even rockwool is not so expensive! The fabric that I saw are SGD7 odd per meter... I need 10m...

More pics here.

DRD installed with Mundorfs

It was a half hour to 45 mins job... both channels of the DRD amplifier are installed with Mundorf 4.7uF as the first capacitor after the RCA83 tube rectifier.

First impression was that the bass is deeper and tighter... I am starting to wonder if my problem with the bass from my speakers are due to the polysterene capacitor that i used instead of the Ducati 8uF motor run oil capacitor...

I'm now listening to "Fall in Love with Olivia" on my setup as I type this blog. This cd was lent to me from a colleague. At first I thought it was Olinda... so I did not listen to the mp3 that were passed to me. After listening, I was surprised to know that Olinda has such a sweet voice.

When I saw the cd, I realized that it is not Olinda, but Olivia... It's a must buy for me, since the first track of the mp3 that I listened to.

moskido heatsinks are in

My moskido heatsinks from Aavid Thermalloy were in on thursday. They personally delivered the pair of heatsinks to my office. So very nice of them.

I only managed to bring them back yesterday. What a bummer it is to realize that the heatsinks are 3mm too tall for the moskido chassis... the easiest way to fit them in is to saw off the excess at the bottom so that i can just bolt on the heatsink...

Have to wait till i have the time though...

Some pics here.

mundorf silver in oil capacitors

Finally got some high end capacitors... I don't really have a use for these in my 5687 preamp nor my DRD, since both would not allow me to use high end capacitors in the signal path...

It happened that some echolofter is selling off his used Mundorf Silver in Oil 4.7uF capacitors at a cheap price. I was too tempted, and just grabbed them. The capacitors are really huge and heavy, but the leads are a little short... not much problem for a DIYer though. He mentioned that the capacitors are relatively new and suspect that they are not run-in yet.

Well... I am just gonna use them as the first capacitor after the RCA83 rectifier in my DRD. Just need to find some time to open up the mono blocks and do the switch.

The capacitors actually stated 4.7uF +/- 2%. According to my multimeter, the capacitance is 4.828uF, which is just a little more than +2%. So much for tolerance...

hot air balloon at Bugis

Thought we could get on board, but it was not to be... the winds were supposedly too strong for take off...

We took some pics and I can only coax Lucas to go for dinner if we had mcdonald's.

But the Mac at Bugis was really packed, and I did not want to sit outside to "enjoy" the 2nd hand smoke... So we went to MOS Burger instead.

More pics here.