I found some white discharge with clumps of blood in my female cat's pee last Tuesday morning, 17th May 2022. I am obviously shocked and worried. What is this? Some infection in her urinary tract?
She was in heat about a week ago. A few days after that I started noticing a tinge of red in her urine. And then this discharge pictured above.
The aim was to improve the audio playback quality of my existing hi-fi. The objective was to upgrade my budget DAC.
But believe it or not, I achieved my goal in the end by getting myself a budget friendly "Made In China" tube pre-amp instead, the Fosi Audio Tube-P1. The cost: about ⅛ of the price of a mid-range DAC.
With this pre-amp, my hi-fi audio experience is much better now. I can hear a lot of improvement. More rumbling bass, more thumping drums, better sound-stage and much better clarity. And mind you, I am just using the stock vacuum tubes that was included in the box, the China made 6K4. I don't think I will be upgrading to the GE5654 tubes. My ears are telling me that these 6K4 tubes are good enough. They are quite economical too.
Now, I have never owned nor have I experienced listening to mid-range or high-end DACs before. I'm sure these products can give much better sounding audio playback. But I do not have deep pockets. So, this Fosi Audio pre-amp addition will just have to do for now. For me at least.
I was having lunch one fine Sunday afternoon when this bird, pictured above, flew onto my next door neighbour's roof. I was obviously excited since this is my first sighting of this species.
Oh.... I just hate it. There are fleas on my cat. There hasn't been any since when she was a little kitten some 8 or 9 years ago. This grey and white stray cat pictured above. I blame it on him. There were none until he arrived. Me and my wife, we always chase him away when we see him. But he will always return the following day.
In the meantime, I have bought one of those flea treatment powder for my cat from Dinos Pet called " Dinos Tick & Flea Off Powder ". I did not use it as per instruction. Being weary of such products, I just a dabble a little here and a little there at places that my cat could not reach (ie. mostly around the back of the head and under the neck). So, not surprisingly, I can still see fleas crawling around my cat.
I thought them Brahminy Kites have left my neighbourhood last year. Guess I was wrong. They are back now. Just one initially a couple of months ago. But I can see a pair now, since last week. Not too sure if they are nesting yet. It would be nice if they do. In any case, welcome back.
It has been almost a month now and it looks like my repair work to my fascia board is holding. I think I deserve a pat on my back. Not perfect and a bit rough on the edges I know but this is what I'll get by working with what's at hand. What's left now is to have it painted in the right colour.
I wonder if my 5 year old Canon SX530 HS camera is approaching its end of life. Last week, while trying to take some pictures of the fascia board that I have repaired, there was a zap, then a pop and a second later some smoke coming out from the top of my camera. I panicked, got anxious and then had that uneasy feeling.
A quick press on the Playback mode button shows that the captured photo was alright.
I took some more pictures just to satisfy my curiosity. No zap and pop this time. No smoke either. I previewed the pictures - they look alright.
So what went wrong? Where did the smoke come from?
If you were to read the Product Data Sheet for 'Dulux Timbercolour' under section "Pre-Application -> System Information", you will get the impression that a Primer coat is not needed when painting on a wooden surface. I assume "N/A" means "not applicable" here.
But from what little knowledge that I knew, a primer or at least an undercoat is needed to ensure good adhesion for the top coat.
Confused, I fired off a question to Dulux Malaysia. I got a reply a day later from Customer Care. They said that they didn't know either and they will get back to me once that get an explanation from RDI, whoever they are. I waited, and waited, and waited .... More than a month later, the said reply has yet to come.
I then sent off a question to Dulux Singapore since 'Dulux Timbercolour' is available for sale in Singapore too. I got a reply from them 3 days later and this is what they say:
The leather cup valve in my bicycle pump broke. I can't get any build up in air pressure while trying to pump my tyre. This comes as no surprise as this pump is something like 30 years old maybe more.
I tried a quick fix by supporting the broken part of the leather cup with a piece of flimsy plastic. It worked for a while, but then there was a 'pop' and the leather cup is now in worse shape than before. A bigger tear now. Needless to say, it is now beyond repair. I was obviously disappointed.
I tried a couple of things as a fix but the cap of an old 35mm film canister, that has been lying around the house for years, did the job for me in the end, believe it or not.
My old wallet, that very wallet that has been me for something like 20 year - is crumbling. It is falling apart.
So one day last month, I had this silly idea about crafting a wallet of my own. It looks easy enough on Youtube. So I thought, why not? Besides, I already have some of the cutting tools and self-healing mat from my last crafting project. I craft them with leather, faux leather like PU/PVC or even by recycling a Tetra pack box. As long as it is functional, it does not matter.
