Of 'pop's and shocks

The other day the battery of my auto-gate remote control died. I opened up the remote control and...

See the crack on the side of the battery?

It was my first time seeing a battery split like this. It was hard to get the battery out because it seemed to have expanded. (Even the remote control casing had been pushed open a crack...I had noticed that even before the battery stopped working, but I thought it was the casing that was broken!) When I pried the battery out with a screwdriver, there was a rather loud ‘pop’ as bits and pieces flew up into the air. It gave me quite a shock...for a split second there I thought that I was gonna die! :O 

I was left with these pieces (unless if I missed picking up some pieces, but I don't think so).

Three button cells, and the other two are from the bottom of the battery casing. The other button cells are still in the battery casing.

What's more, after that I left the bits and pieces on the table, somewhere beside my computer. Then as I was using the computer, there was suddenly another ‘pop’ and the biggest piece (the casing with its remaining cells) jumped about a foot away on the table (horizontal distance... I didn't notice the vertical distance :P ). Another shock...though a smaller one this time.

After that, I moved all the pieces into a ziplock bag and left it somewhere further away till I went to the office to dispose of it (there's a battery-disposal bin in my office). But I think it was the heat from my computer that made it go ‘pop’again... and come to think of it, the battery may have expanded because of being overheated in my car. After all, my car was parked under the hot sun every day. Previously in the Viva, I kept the remote control in a small closed compartment, but the Myvi doesn't have an appropriate closed compartment, so I was keeping it in an open slot. That place probably heats up more under the sun!

Luckily we now have a covered car-park...I will need to remember to save my remote control if I ever park for long periods under the sun again!

Squad complete!

Guess what? I caught a Charizard!

Although I didn't really "catch" it. It was another gift, again from the friend who helped me get my Venusaur. By this time I had figured out that the Venusaur had probably come from a claw machine (people who play those for fun don't really want the stuff they catch), and he confirmed that this Charizard did come from a claw machine.

I did the obligatory photo-shoot as usual, but I'm not posting the rest of the photos because firstly, they don't look very good (the Charizard can't stand up on its own very well, so most of the shots have it balanced precariously or awkwardly), and secondly, there is not much to see! The major parts are on the front, and the fiery tail tip.

Anyway here's a photo of my Pokemon squad!

With six Pokemon, I guess I can go to the Pokemon League now! :P

Even the types are pretty balanced: water, grass, fire, electric, normal, flying/dragon. The basic types are all there! (Though for some reason I kept thinking that Dragonite was a psychic type, and was gonna say that I had a normal and a psychic Pokemon...but then I checked online and turns out it isn't. Hmm...I guess it just knows Psychic moves...)

Surrounded...and a Circle

I just watched You're All Surrounded. It was quite entertaining... and some parts of the plot was actually quite good. But they didn't handle the details very well. I am very disappointed over some loose ends!

If you plan to watch it, you might want to skip reading this, because spoilers are coming up!

The story is about a boy who changed his identity after his mother was killed, and grows up to become a policeman to catch his mother's murderer. Loose end no. 1: He gets a sponsor at the orphanage that he ran to, and the sponsor turns out to be a policewoman who had helped his mother's killer in the past. Did the policewoman know who she was sponsoring? She told another person that she didn't, and it was a coincidence. But we do not know whether she was lying... When the main character (the boy) found out that his sponsor was with the bad guys, he asked her "Why did you sponsor me?", but he did not ask the most important question (in my opinion): "Did you know it was me you were sponsoring?" Because, if it was not a coincidence, another question needs to be asked: "How did you find me?"

When the boy was running away, they show him going to a number of orphanages, faking amnesia, where every one asked him to report to the police first, in case his family was looking for him. He had heard the murderer say that they had an inside person in the police, so he left each of those orphanages. In the end he stayed at one which did not ask him to go to the police, which to me, basically means that the orphanage director is an awful person. (not allowing his parents to find him! But I guess that's needed in the plot :P ) So I was expecting the orphanage director to have been briefed by the to-be sponsor, to accept the child, or something like that...meaning that the sponsor saved the boy somehow. But no, nothing like that happened! (maybe I should go help them write their story :P )

Loose end no. 2: His mother turned out to be killed by another woman (rich woman) who suspected that his mother had given birth to her (rich woman's) husband's child (the boy's mother was a single mother). We even get to see a flashback of how the rich woman got angry after seeing her husband talking to the boy's mother (his old flame), and rich woman told off the boy's mother, saying "I told you never to meet him again", to which the boy's mother responded that she didn't intentionally bump into the husband. So it would seem that the rich woman had paid off or threatened off the boy's mother somehow. But...we get no more news about what had happened then. Instead, the murder turned out to have been instigated by another factor altogether.

I have a few other things that I'm not quite happy about in this drama, but I will stop here with the two major complaints. :P

Before this, I watched Circle. This is another case where the synopsis of a story doesn't do it justice. (like Pinocchio before) When I read the synopses online, I never wanted to watch the drama. It wasn't until I caught a few snippets that my mother was watching on TV, and she told me that it was quite interesting, that I decided to watch it.

For example, AsianWiki says:

Story is set in the present day and the year 2037. An alien comes to Earth. The alien believes human's emotion should be controlled or they will have no future. The alien becomes involved with humans. 

Google says:

In 2017, a student investigates mysterious incidents while aliens invade the planet; meanwhile in 2037, a detective investigates a murder in the alien-controlled "Smart Earth."

The mention of aliens just didn't cut it for me. So even though I had heard of this drama before, I was never interested in watching it.

And I didn't see this until now, but MyDramaList says:

Taking place in both the present year 2017 and in the year 2037, when people believe that their future depends on humans controlling and regulating their emotions, this drama is a sci-fi mystery. When alien visitors arrive on Earth, humans learn new skills from them and take advantage of them; what ensues is a story of alliance, resistance, and love.
Each episode will contain two shorter stories, the first part set in 2017 and called “Beta Project,” with the second set in 2037 and called “Grand New World.”

Personally, I would have written the synopsis like this:

In 2017, a series of suicides occur in a university. However, some suspect that they are actually murders. In 2037, a murder occurs in a "Smart City" where every resident is equipped with a chip to regulate their emotions and prevent crime. How are the events in 2037 related to what happened 20 years ago?

Never mind aliens...that should not be the draw here!

I felt that Circle was quite good...despite the events cutting from 2017 to 2037 (half an episode for each year). The cliffhangers were a bit annoying, because we would get a cliffhanger on 2017, then we have to watch something in 2037 instead. Then we get the cliffhanger in 2037 at the end of the episode, but the beginning of the next episode goes back to 2017. But I feel they edited the story really well...the revelations are done so that what we discover in 2017 will match what we will discover next in 2037 (or vice versa). So I do admire the final product that they came up with (unlike You're All Surrounded! :P )

I also liked the characters, and their development. We could see a number of characters having strong beliefs, which would later be overturned by events.

Western fusion food at Cottage 75

When in Meru, we went to this Western food restaurant called Cottage 75 Cafe. The chef is a Malaysian who worked in Ireland before opening his own restaurant here.

beef burger

The beef patty was soft and juicy! Unfortunately I've thrown the receipt away, so I can't remember the prices. This was maybe around RM16...the same as the chicken chop dish below.

emerald seabass

This is a very special dish, priced at RM25 I think (the most expensive that we ordered) It is grilled seabass, with a spinach velouté filled with seafood (mussels, clams, fish pieces, even a prawn). Seriously very yummy! (didn't taste the spinach though...I just remember it from the menu description because it was so uncommon)

mee rebus tulang

For this one, I think the taste was just normal. However the beef pieces were very tender! This was the cheapest dish, probably around RM10.

nasi goreng chicken chop

WW ordered this one because we saw some people eating nasi goreng and it looked nice. However the taste was just so-so. WW requested black pepper gravy for the chicken chop. It looks like they just added the gravy on top of the sambal on the chicken chop?

onion rings

This was okay... just as onion rings are supposed to be, nothing more, nothing less. I wouldn't order it, but then I'm not a great fan of onion rings.

Anyway, we want to go again...mainly for the beef burger and emerald seabass!

Say hello to Captain Tetra!

Some time ago we purchased this pilot bear for our "Fun Place to Work" activities. We would put the teddy bear on someone's desk, snap a photo, and send the photo out for people to find the bear. (Unfortunately not many people are willing to make the effort to go and find the bear, but that's beside the point here :P ) We (I) called this bear Captain Tetra. It was meant to be a pun on Captain America, as in, "America has Captain America, so Tetra has Captain Tetra!" (I'm rather disappointed that no one seemed to catch on to the pun...)

Small digression: Speaking of puns, I even called the activity "Finding Captain Tetra", which is meant to be a pun on "Finding Nemo". Again, no one caught on. (though this is more far-fetched :P )

Anyway, recently someone created a "Captain CE" image for one of our colleagues (CE being the initials of the colleague). He put the initials "CE" in the middle of Captain America's shield. That made me realize that I could do the same for Captain Tetra! If you search online, you will find that Tetra logo easily.

Previously I had stuck a label onto the bear's shirt with the words "Captain Tetra" written on it with a marker pen. It couldn't stick, so I pinned it on with a safety pin. When I got the shield printed, I printed out the words "Captain Tetra" as well, and made the bear a new badge. The badge is now reinforced with cardboard :P

What's more, the shield is held by a rubber band. Which means that Captain Tetra can pick up and put down his shield any time!

I didn't spend much time perfecting this, so the result is rather crude (approximate sizes, etc) However I am still quite proud of the result, and of how simple it was to make it just presentable.