Repairing a Chinook

I was at JRB with the newly posted guys and gals to have their military ID made and also do some shopping at the BX when I chance upon a old fellow name Mr Kelly selling some die cast model of military planes and helicopters. The Chinook helicopter capture my attention most probably because I am working as a rotor and transmission technician on it for the past 3 years and have develop a love-hate relationship with it.

Mr Kelly is such customer orientated salesperson, he offered to open up the packaging to show me the model. His shop is closing down and all the model is going for 50% off. This Chinook will be selling at US$25. Sadly the forward right wheel fell off when he took it out of the packaging. Mr Kelly attempted to fix it up but slipped his hand breaking off 4 radio antenna on the left side of the Chinook and a IFF antenna on the top of it. Mr Kelly kept blaming himself for his old hands and apologized to me. In the back of my mind, I was already thinking of an exit strategy to get out of the shop, maybe my hand phone ringing will be a good distraction? But Mr Kelly was one really sincere old guy and maybe a bit desperate to sell all his stuff ASAP. He offered 15 dollars for this set of Chinook which now require some super glue repair. Well, I saw the sadness in his eyes for screwing up his own sales so I shook his hands and close the deal at 15. Gleam in his eyes I saw and a good deal for me at 15. Just need a couple of minutes rectification.... isn't I a Chinook Senior Technician?

Its refreshing to see a White Chinook for a change.

Missing IFF antenna

Broken HF Radio Antenna

Right landing gear ripped off from hard landing.

The missing landing gears. An 'Air Frame' man job

5 pieces of broken Antenna. Jobs for the 'RC man'

Wheels back to where it belong using a small amount of Super Glue.

All Antenna delicately stick in place.

Hmm...something is still missing....

Yup! Always need RT man like me to fit up the signature 6 blades of the Chinook.

This model kit will be my humble little contribution to my RT section at Peace Prairie Detachment. We have a cabinet with a flat square top to place this one on.

Laksa...taste like home

Tiger Princess a.k.a Ah Lian Jie Jie made a bowl of Laksa for me today. It taste like Singapore, felt like Singapore and make me suddenly miss Singapore (for all its food obviously). I gobbled it down in 5 mins without even considering taking a picture of it...what a pity.

Pictures Of The Week

A warm Dinner of home cooked Fried Rice is a welcoming relieve for all of us out in the cold. Thanks to all you guys and gals who came over after dinner to support our action.

Happy Post-Thanksgiving Day gift from Officer J.Payne (Pain lah) from the Irving Police Department. Price of Parking in FireLane? US$130...

Endured 15 hours of Cold on Thanksgiving Day

After 15 hours of survival in the coldest moment of my life in USA, the tickets for the Sony laptop was finally handed out to the line of people Q-ing outside Best Buy at 3am. We thought we were just not far ahead in line to get the Laptop and that 15 hrs wait and torture could have not worth it.
Alas, somehow God saw out perseverance hanging on to our sanity in the cold freezing night, with warm clothings and unlike those with tents, we were sitting in the open. We all were not disappointed with all the effort and we all got the ticket! Our Sony Laptop at US$399.99!!! YAAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOO!

The warriors that survived the night and got what they truly deserved. The Holy Grail of BestBuy "Black" Friday sale! The Sony VAIO Laptop.

I am number 18 in the line but not the last. 37 VAIO laptop were available in this store. Speculation earlier on said each store only had 15. So I was really luck I guess.

Very well written instruction on how to collect my laptop full of congratulation notes.

The journey all begins on Friday afternoon at 2pm when Ricky, me and Garfield headed out to scout for a BestBuy store to "Camp" for the day, expecting to be the first in line since we are almost 16 hours ahead of store opening time. Call it the Singaporean Kiasunism. We were so damn confident that we will be first in line but soon got shocked by the fact Singaporean are no longer the most Kiasu people on Earth. There are already a 30m line forming out of all 3 BestBuy store in the neighborhood and most came well prepared with chairs and even pitch tents! Really frustrating and the thought of giving up is already at the back of our mind. Than we decided to make a last try and headed to one really Ulu location BestBuy at Grapevine with only the Airport and Rich people houses in the vicinity ( don't think Rich people would wanna Q early). The Q looks shorter here and we setup our base. In everyone thought, even if we don't get the laptop, this will be an interesting experience. Its 3.00pm now...

There we are, the few guys at the end of our lines.

Me, Ricky and Garfield, its our first time in life Q-ing up long hours to shop and so are our 3 next door neighbor down the line. Together, we formed a Coalition of "Keep each other entertain, Talk cock Sing Song and Stop Line Jumper" forces. Introducing the Coalition member....

Riccardo from Singapore

Ricky from Singapore

Garfield from Singapore but looks like from Japan

Michal from Poland

Jason and Jill from USA!!!

We are actually quite ill prepare for the occasion. Me, Ricky and Garfield only have 2 layers of clothes top and bottom and we are already feeling the cold in the mid afternoon sun, Michal did not bring a chair. On the other hand, Jason and Jill are in right winter clothings. Ricky and I have to drive back to get some more warm clothings and thanks to Jie Jie for giving us a blanket each on the way back to Best Buy. Since Michal got no chair to sit on and no one gonna stand for 15 hours or sit on the cold concrete ground, I offered my seat to him while Jason got another seat from his pick-up and offered to me. So everyone had seats and everyone is happy.

So the next many hours into the evening we all chat and did a bit of cultural exchange. We talk about the difference in Military privilege with Jill (the women) who use to be in the Air force and also the kind of sentencing in USA and Singapore for different crime committed for now she is working with Police against Sex Offenders. Shocked and disgusted to know that in one of her cases she actually have to call in the SPCA because the offender is having sex with animals! Some even as small as a Squirrel! Damn.... Jason work as a aircraft mechanic for the 737 and we of course got lots of common topics in the line of work. We compared salary and working hours. For he only work 3 days a week, 16 hours a day while we work 5 days a week (going to be 6 for this month) and usually ends up 12 hours a day. US$80K per year compared to US$40K. What a difference. Michal shared with us Poland, culture and government and he tried to challenge us that Polish pay alot for car. Singaporean of course drive the world most expensive cars, all for the wrong vehicle class.

Nightfalls. All this talk cock session really warm the atmosphere up...mentally but in reality its getting colder and colder. I reckon its almost 5 degrees celsius. Even with the blanket, triple layer clothings and my winter socks. We often have to take turn to the car to get some warm from the heater. The line is getting longer and longer as well and I was wondering are they all coming for the laptop too? We all start counting down the hours the temperature counts down too every passing hour. Its so cold that I can hardly feel my toes.

It snowed for a while and stop, and snow and stop. Thank god it did not rain on us cause it sure will be worst to be wet in the cold. If I gonna Q again in the future, I make sure I bring a tent to stay in for the wind chill is torturing. Close to 3am the time when the ticket will be given out, I wonder if its the final test for all of us, the wind kept howling at its felt like piercing needles when it blows over the exposed skin on my face. We endured that terrible 10min of wind chill that felt like freezing.

The ugly side of human being was revealed when the BestBuy stuff arrived and ask everyone to form a line to get the tickets. Shit happen....a couple of F***kers from the back of the line suddenly rush forward and jump all over in between the lines in front of us. There was a moment of chaos when the right people in the Q were shouting and telling of the line jumper. In front of me was 2 Asian guys who looks like Korean or maybe Chinese like us who think that just because I have the same skin color as them and looks kinda like them that they can take the liberty and just walk in front of me.(in fact they look like shit head by jumping the line). Now this few trouble makers are not gonna get away with it that easily for we all have Q many hours in line not for some joker to sneak in. So everyone else is shouting "YOU ALL KNOW WHO IS YOUR NEIGHBOUR AND WHO IS NOT!". Those who have the rights to be in the line start pointing at those who are not and telling them off. A girl was pushed in the ruffle by another women whose not suppose to be behind us and she broke down in tears. The 2 Asian got repeatably call of by us but kept ignoring us. I was really mad and I just pulled one of them in the shoulder and shout "You better get back in line or I will call the cops". I wonder if they even know English at all because their face look clueless.

Eventually that 2 dork did bug out of the line not because of us but the professional BesyBuy store staff who went down the line and make sure the Q-jumper are sorted out of it. All goes well happily ever after since than. Not only do we all get the laptop, we manage to get other stuff in the store that is on our shopping list. For me? The Laptop and the Western Digital Passport 160GB Red Edition.

Yup, thats my second laptop. My older but much better specs Toshiba will be given to my family back home, mainly mum and sis.

Flu and Shopping Season

Ahh.....splitting headache, extreme fatigue, a slight sore throat and a block nose, this are all the symptoms of getting the flu. This few weeks in US is call the flu season and I don't know why untill I got a slight sore throat last week ending up a full blown flu yesterday.

Thats not fair, I said...I have always keep my body fit and healthy through lots of run and a good diet. Maybe I did not go for my regular run for the whole of last week except for that early morning run with the Emperor but WHY WHY WHY did I get down with the flu. Now I am just feeling really tired no matter what I do and the though of getting MC for the whole week linger on my mind.

Thanksgiving Day is this Thursday and on Friday, its called the 'Black Friday', an evil day where many merchandise store from electronic to toys and from hardware to clothings are having really huge discount on lots of item. That evil forces will lure huge number of Earth minions from all around the United States Of America to part their money with stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, Toy R Us and Walmart. A real time Google Map Satellite image will produce pictures having millions of dots representing human beings crowding around shopping areas. You get to find really dark deals like a Sony 15.4" Laptop loaded with Windows Vista Premium for just US$399 (usual US$899) or a Casio Exfilm 7.2MP camera at US$139.99 (usual US$179.99) or a Western Digital 500GB SATA Harddisk at US$59.99 (usual US$119.99). Here is a Thanksgiving Day ad leaked out from insiders of BestBuy,

http://downloads.bfads.net/BFAds-BestBuy.pdf

Alas, some of the very evil deals out there comes in limited quantity to ensure not too much "blood" is shed. It common to see lines forming outside each stores 12hrs before the Thanksgiving opening time reminiscence of the "Hello Kitty" line of Singapore. This lines people just like Zombies only have a singular objectives in mind, to grab the limited stock deal before others get it. Just like Zombies, they operate through the night, and could go without food, waterand sleep for that long 12 hours.

The Flu and Shopping Season are over lapping each other. I got the flu, and its 4 days before the shopping season starts. It will be my last Thanksgiving Black Friday shopping experience in USA and I sure don't wanna miss a moment (or deals) of it. It will be the very first time in my life I ever Q up for long hours to do shopping. On my list right now are,

1- Sony 15.4" Laptop from BestBuy US$399.99 from BestBuy
2-Seagate SATA/300 320GB Internal Harddisk Drive from BestBuy
3-Casio Exfilm 7.2MP Digital Camera at US$139.99 (usual US$179.99) from Circuit City

So the plan is me and Ricky will be to join the Zombies, Q-ing up at a Irving's Bestbuy at 5pm on Thanksgiving Day till the store open on Friday morning 5am. This should help us get the laptops and my Seagate harddisk. Next we will scramble to Circuit City right next door and get the Digital Camera. Finally I will head home and catch up some sleep because there is a chance that I will have to work night shift on that day. Next day will be Saturday morning and I will head down to San Marcos with couple of friends to do some Thanksgiving shopping of clothings and apparel for myself and Christmas gift for friends back in Singapore.

I pray that my flu will recover and I will have the strength to survive an evil indulgence in shopping from Thursday to Saturday.

Birthday on the 16th....

Today is my dear Sister, Rachel, Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!

and new update to my blog right side navigation tab,

- Pokemon Theme Song
- Baby Cherilyn blog, http://www.allaboutxinyi.blogspot.com/

The Emperor have left!!!

Yeah!!!! The Emperor have left!!! I rejoicing for my dear Boss and Supervisor who have to entertain him for the past 5 days. Someone (no name mention) came back after sending him off and give us all a big heave of relief. Our very senior 'Obi Wan Kenobi' mood and expression this few days tell me its a torture to entertain or 应酬 with the Emperor. 'Darth Vader' light saber was really no match for Emperor fiery sarcasm on stage. Darth Vader look really sian when Emperor addresses us all clone troopers a second time, a second day.

With the Emperor returning to the Empire, we finally have more room to breath and life return back to normal for us. Come to think of it, I suddenly think Emperor looks like....

Don't know what to say man. Looking at him remind me of the Emperor. Hmm...I think there is this one HK actor he also looks like. Forgot the name liao

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Have been pretty busy with work that I forgot to celebrate my Birthday with a treat to myself. Not really a big deal at all cause I still have many Birthday to come unless the Earth is Annihilated by some Aliens with Big Saucer Mother ship that need a virus and a nuke to be destroyed.

My Birthday was on Monday and today I am 26 years old. I could still vaguely remember the day that I landed on Earth 26 years ago, it was a big bang and than total darkness.... next thing I knew I was looking at lights from the ceiling while lying down in a glass cage. A small little note was sticking on the glass cage, Welcome to Earth dude, for the next many decades of your life, you will see the ugly side of human beings, the most volatile creature in this galaxy.

That note must be written by some very pessimistic creature or that little brat in my neighboring glass cage who probably have gone through a miserable 26 years of his life today. The truth is, everyone have a the good side and the bad side. If we could all tolerate the bad side while fully appreciating the good side, I think the Earth will be a peaceful place to stay now. Needless to say, we should all be conscience whats wrong with ourselves and correct it before someone get hurts.

Sadly I was not able to cash in my "Birthday-Off " on Monday thanks to the 'Emperor' visit. Last year my "Birthday-Off" also kanna makan because it falls on Sunday. Well, there is a popular saying in the SAF; "Off Is A Privilege, Not An Entitlement". So I say, lets not take it too hard lah. At less I still get a long distance Birthday wish from my dear bro Alfred and my dear Sis Rachel and a quite a short official Birthday celebration from all the guys in the base during last Saturday BBQ. Captain-B, David and Xiao Bai shared the celebration with me. Lastly, I got a present from my Da Jie!!!

Surprise!!! You got a present and a card! I'm so happy I became light-headed.

Hmm... it fits me really well! I love it. Just look at my smile!

This will make a statement at a Texas Hold Em game.

Seriously...I did not expect "Jack Skellington" before opening the present today! Laughed myself silly when I realize that my favorite background for photography got such close relation to my Birthday present. THANK YOU JIE JIE!!! If you are reading this, just wanna tell you I love this T-shirt!

This is my last Birthday in the United States and I do miss the time I had with my family. We always celebrate each other Birthday each year even if its just a simple cake cutting session. Mum, Dad, Sis and Me. As time goes by we headed out for a really nice dinner at a nice restaurant but will still still to the family tradition of having the birthday cake at home.

Crazy Dance

Just completed a MTV of my two Dear colleague, Ah Peng and Adriel dancing in our base. Felt satisfied that I finally make this very funny video clip which I have on my mind the moment I see the raw footage of this 2 dancing king. Dress in coverall and dancing while doing the daily boring task of Standardization of the SOAP machine, they sure have a cheerful outlook of work.

Maybe I should broadcast this clip worldwide to show people the bright and humourous side of working in the Air Force. Alas, we are from a secretive organization and any pictures or video be in good impact or negative impact is strictly not allowed to be broadcast online. So no video here today untill I seek the proper permission from 1st, Ah Gong, 2nd Ah Gong Deputy and finally the cast in the video clip.

Heading out for dinner with Garfield now....

Abuse of Rights.

Have anyone in your company ever abuse his rights and make use of company fundings, facilities or services for personnel gain? Isn't it unethical? Even if he or she is the director or CEO, does it mean that he/she could use resources for anything other than the benefit of the company? For example, a exotic car showroom manager taking a short thrill drive of a car supposedly for sale or maybe the manager of a car workshop purchasing parts for to replace the damage ones from his personnel vehicle under the expenses of the workshop? How about the long forgotten issue of NKF's Durai buying Business class air ticket for traveling using public donation?

And to make it worst, some people within that company, that workshop or that charity foundation knows what happening and its wrong. Sadly instead of speaking up against the abuse of power by that particular person, they decided to keep it quiet for the fear that been a whistle blower means a sure declaration of resignation from the company. The power of money and job security unfortunately for most people not to highlight it because those to be prosecuted held immerse power within the organization. Its either a winning case against an unethical human being or a self-suicide for the brave one to stand out like a torn of a rose.

So no one is going to expose anyone and someone gonna do the cover-up. "Lets Just Forget This Episode And Move On" kind of action will be taken and that singular incident of abuse will suddenly be written off the record which soon will be repeated for "The Wolf Is Not Hunted, Why Would It Be Afraid To Raid The Farm For Chicken Again?"

If you are an employee of this company, will you have a clean conscience working when you know such things are happening. If you are a shareholder and heard rumors about abuse of rights for personal gain and the subsequent cover up, would your confident in the company take a beating. What if you are a tax payer???

Canteen

Oakley Canteen. BIG EYE SUNGLASS!

Ok I admit, I am crazy about Oakley stuff and never was before I came to USA. This is my latest collection, the Oakley Canteen shade purchase through www.usstandardissue.com , a special program made just for US military and federal government personal to purchase Oakley product at discounted price.

Walking into an Oakley Outlet or a merchandise store almost certainly catch my attention on at less a few product. Never have I been so "brand" crazy in the past, probably a fatter wallet and a sudden priority place on personal imaging sparked a dozen of purchase from Oakley. First it was Sunglass or shades as some would like to call it, to bags and luggage ( got 2 of them now) and now finally into Oakley clothings. I'm afraid, sooner or later my whole wardrobe will be nothing but Oakley stuff. Nothing catches my attention more than an Oakley Outlet whenever I go shopping.

To suggest that its just the brand playing the part in a purchaser decision like mine is an understatement. Most people will swear to the quality of the sunglasses collection Oakley got and will so much to choose from there bound to be a dozen that suits you. The world largest sunglass company can't go wrong in this area isn't that right? I think the next good stuff to get from Oakley will definitely be the bags which is make to last with style. Got myself 2 Roller Duffel from travelling and the only thing I worry about is getting checked by custom every time because its pretty eye catching. Hmm....maybe they just curious how it look inside?

Oakley Big and Small Roller Duffel. Can roll, can carry and can detach front compartment bag.

LOW PRICE! Thats something I will never never find in Singapore. The price of regular Oakley sunglass and bags are appox 40% off those from Singapore and when it comes to factory outlet selling discontinued model or surplus, expect almost 70% lower price than what you would find back in Singapore. And with the current US currency rate plummeting, its getting cheaper to shop right here.

So, I have 7 months more to go. Gonna stock up on Oakley stuff (clothes, bag, accessories and couple more sunglass) before I come back to Singapore. Already thinking of getting a laptop hand carry bag, Juliet sunglass (made of titanium), couple of lens of my half jacket and Canteen sunglass, a jacket, some t-shirt and lots of short sleeve shirt which is very suitable for Singapore weather. I will really miss the shopping here, not just Oakley but other of my favorite brand like Levis, Nautica and Polo Ralph. However Oakley still rules at the top of my list!

A nice Halloween Picture

Texas Chain Saw Massacre!!!

SCREAM!!!!

A little pumpkin in an Ambulance

I'm back from Blog absents

Hello there, been out of the blogging scene for almost a week! Well I admit I have been really busy with, number 1 - Work and number 2- Video Project. Work is routine as usual, nothing to brag about, while the Video Project basically occupies all the time that I am awake and away from work. It was suppose to be made as a CD for our dear CO who is going to visit our base and with a very short production time. So its rush rush rush... I was almost at my wits end when half way through the production, those raw material like videos and pictures run out and my brain juice got stuck.

So its like a movie production where the editor just did not have enough film to work on. So far I am still only working on 1 "featured length" video production instead of the ambitious 3 I initially set my target on... better put all the egg in one basket this time I thought. And as for improvising thanks to the short time frame, I approached James, who is really talented with this kind of video editing thing to get two "featured length" video he made in the past to be included in the finalized VCD I am going to create for CO.

Oh...please leave the CO aside cause I don't know him and he may only know me vaguely. I decided this is a time to kill two birds with one stone. Instead of just making the VCD for CO, why not produce it for the guys (and gals) who will be leaving Peace Prairie Detachment in a few week times when their tour of duty ended?

So I took off today to dedicate this whole Thursday evening to complete this project. Everything have to be prep-up and ready for presentation during the farewell party this Saturday. I admit, James did a better job with his 2 videos compared to what I could struggle to produce this week. However looking on another perspective, working on my current video project sparked new interest in the direction of video production. Thinking of getting a camcorder before I head back so I could work on some mini-mtv project back in Singapore.

Ok some plans for the next few months. Thanksgiving Day will be coming that means some crazy sales will be happening 1 day after. Will be going to Q-up, "Hello Kitty MacDonald" style for a lap top which will be selling at jaw dropping price (limited Quantities). Next is another shopping trip at San Marcos for Christmas gift before heading back to Singapore. Finally, a short holiday trip is currently planned for Snowboarding at Ski Apache, New Mexico next year January.

An FOD Walk Joke

Every morning our guys have to go on FOD walk in the hanger and the runway to pick up foreign object debris that could be damage the helicopter when its swirl up into the air by the downwash of the rotor blades or in the fighter world, injest into the engine and cause expensive damage.

After the FOD walk, we will always gather at the hanger and hand over any debris we found to the In-Charge of that day and that particular day happen to be our CWO Encik Ong. Someone found a broken broom stick and promptly pass it to Encik Ong...

Encik Ong: "Hmm...this broom stick came from an emergency crash landing that happened last night"

The rest of us: "???, Really??? Was there a Crash landing yesterday?"

Encik Ong: "Yah, you know...yesterday was Halloween and...


... Harry Potter crash landed in our Base."

One Big Arrow or One Great Oppurtunity?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

I just kanna a very big arrow, to create a video about we the blue guys, the logistician, the Senior Technician of Peace Prairie Detachment. To make the arrow even bigger, the deadline is tight. A draft by Tuesday, a final video before Friday and finally the show time on Friday. All of a sudden I am looking at all the collection of pictures taken of Peace Prairie Detachment and my fellow colleagues. Than I am putting my Apple I-tunes on "party shuffle" hoping that some song might give me a spark of idea how to choreograph this video.

Big arrow but big opportunity for me to start a video project of my life in Peace Prairie Detachment. Have always thought of making a video on the subject of my base and my fellow colleagues but never expect things to happen so soon. The hard part is getting the raw material like video and pictures. Pictures I have tons but video I only have a miserable few mostly taken with digital camera with quality leaving much room to be desired. No problem with getting the machine to work on those video for I have now a video production power house PC, a product of my recent PC Project and a 19" Samsung LCD monitor to view either the masterpiece or garbage in all its wonderful colors. Confirm can process the video fast and without lag.

Oh dear, suddenly I felt like I am back in NYP doing Digital Media Design when the lecturer give us a kick in the nuts and handed us a video assignment to be submitted in a week. Well, I'm not a man to reject a request or an arrow. Take it with a positive note I will, its a challenge for me and a golden opportunity to shine a bit. Gonna put my Heart and Soul into it this time something I have not been doing for a large part of my life at work so far. However I sure hope the arrow have come to me much much earlier at less I got more breathing space for my left creative brain to think instead of squeezing it juice at a snap of a finger.

What to do? You know lah, its always "Rush to Wait and Wait to Rush".